Song Of Silence
by Maerlyn of Miria
Summary: In the 24th century, humanity has expanded to inhabit multiple galaxies, but a threat approaches from an unexpected direction, combined with the threat they've been dealing with for decades, and a darkness from before the dawn of time intends total universal destruction. The tower trembles. The rose shudders as if in the grip of the final winter. Rule Discordia!
1. Chapter 1: Danger On The Horizon

author's Note:

this story started out as a way for me and a couple of friends to pass the time a while back, each of us writing a bit and then playing what I like to call "Pass The Pen", but the others involved in the project finished up moving on and pretty much handed the story over to me. It's mainly based on a MUD called Miriani, one of the largest interactive online sciense fiction role play games I've encountered.

At first the story was a straight forward one of humans versus Praelor, the insectoid alien race threatening humanity in the miriani version of the 24th century, but as I continued to work on it, the habit I have of unintentionally linking different works of mine came into play, and the next thing I knew, Janice Kulanek from Beyond the Tower, another work of mine showed up, as did references to the tower itself, the rose, toDash, and even Discordia, which makes it, I suppose, a miriani/Dark Tower crossover.

I hope those of you reading this enjoy it and, as always, any reviews are welcome.

Kkhlyyr na-Lhyyreght Trrghlinh was the last surviving Nexus of Nhakk-Aryyti, the Lost World. No one knew what had happened to it. No one even knew what had happened to her, none of the Krenelia, her lost people; none of the Ontanka, who had whirled together one of their usual unorganized fleets (which had typically fallen quickly into chaos, their weak-minded Nexi unable to assert much influence over them); and none of the Frnalk, the ones she actually had something to worry about from. She had taken the survivors of her network and fled into the silent blackness of space, plotting coordinates that one of her mother's network had given to her before the disaster. He was dead, they were all dead. For all she knew, all of the Krenelia were dead, and there was nothing left but her. And she carried no daughter. Her people would not continue.

She would not think of it. She would deliver her warning and helplessly watch the repercussions like ripples in a pool. These were disconnected creatures that she went to find. She could not guarantee that their reaction would be best. But in a galaxy full of enemies, who else can you turn to?

A tiny red light flashed up in one of her eye-facets, meaning that there was a burst of psi-comm waiting for her to open the channel. She quickly scanned it, noting that it came from one of her Otaneh escorts at the back of the fleet who were watching for Frnalk pursuers.

She opened the channel on to mental static and a high, thin streak of psi-sound that burned a track through her mind like a precision laser. She slammed the channel shut on the scream, an instant later feeling the explosion that signified the death of the current Otaneh scout ship fry her mental nerve endings. She turned her attention then to the ship, sent its nearest receptor a burst of chemsign that would tell the fleet to go on alert, and then sank into battle-trance, where she could see through all her sons' eyes. They were close, a hundred thousand light-years from human space. They could jump, almost, if they could get away from their pursuers, not that many ships even of the kind of which hers was one could create such a long range wormhole. But that would mean leading them to the Alliances, and recent intelligence had told the Krenelia that the humans could not withstand a Frnalk invasion. They were complacent and disorganized and would quickly fall.

She didn't know if they could make it, but she sent out the message for the synchronized wormhole jump, before too many Muzati came into the sector and disrupted their drive energies. She'd just have to leave it up to chance.

She tasted the ship responding, telling her the drive was redlining, telling her they wouldn't make it.

They would make it, by Zannahiya, they had to make it.

Through her battle trance, she sensed minds in the distance. most of them were disconnected minds, humans, but then she touched two that were not. She knew these minds and rejoiced at their presence. Perhaps all was not yet lost.

Part One

Clarissa Azhaani had just re-entered Sector 15, and was plotting a course back to Empanda, when the ship announced: "The one-person expediter _Feather_ is one unit away from this ship."

Everyone knew that _Feather_ was Sayeh Azhaani's expediter and that if you saw it, she was watching, planning, waiting, that she was being quiet for a purpose. Battle cruisers had been known to run away when _Feather_ appeared, because Sayeh wasn't always in it. Sometimes it was either Sareela or Maerlyn (although Maerlyn was more apt to appear in his own Expediter than in Feather.) If Feather jumped into a sector and Sayeh was in it and you'd done something to one of her family she'd leave you alone. Someone else might come back for you later, usually sporting a stun gun and followed by a pair of droids or drones.

The private comm signal went off and she heard Sayeh's voice in her ear. "Don't jump. It's just me."

Clarissa sighed. She was an Azhaani, and Sayeh was an Azhaani, and they had an uneasy truce with the rest of the galaxy. Never mind that Sayeh's family was powerful these days, regardless of in-fighting that had nearly torn it apart in its early days. There was Sayeh, Clarissa, Sareela, Kodonera, Nahia, Cianan, Morpheus, Maerlyn and Lillian. Most of them were good, but there were other things besides combat to be good at. And it was Sayeh who was pushing to create the Interalliance Defense Force, and her opposition was thinning, because the only opposition the Azhaanis had were the complacent types who hadn't bothered to fight or crew up their battle cruisers in years for invasions, not even for the big Sector 12 invasion back in August when the Praelor decided that being organized was a good thing.

:The 1-person Expediter Miria is one unit away from this ship," the computer announced a moment later as a second expediter, this one Maerlyn's, subwarped to coords from which it could land. Maerlyn's Expediter was followed quickly by his wife's ship, Afternoon Delight.

The expediters landed on Empanda and were hauled away by the time Clarissa's freighter touched the ground. She looked out. Zhia Recelli was standing out there, probably waiting for Sayeh. And if Clarissa went out there, Zhia'd snap her up and demand to know where Sayeh went. So she powered down the ship and put it in her garage.

Her comm beeped again. "Clarissa, it's been ages since we met just for fun. You've got a key to my Empanda apartment. Come here and say hi."

"K, Sayeh. It's not like I have anything else to do."

Clarissa grinned, even though Sayeh couldn't see it. It would be nice to sit down and unwind with her. After all, they'd been old friends before either of them got wrapped up in politics. That wasn't going to break so easily just because Clarissa was Hale and Sayeh was AIE; Sayeh had almost married a man in Hale, and it wasn't the war that had torn apart that relationship.

She peered out into the apartment lobby. Sayeh had taught her paranoia, back before they were stronger. And in these times it didn't matter how strong you were, though some seemed to forget that. There was only Simon, passing through, so Clarissa ran out to hug him.

"I don't see you very often!" she said.

"I haven't been around very often," he said.

"Oh, yes, you and Sayeh are the Ambassadors and it was your turn to go back, wasn't it?"

"My first time there," he said.

"Sayeh says it's so odd."

"Believe me," said Simon, "it's _way_ more fucking strange than I could possibly describe."

Sayeh came dashing down from the upper apartments. "Well if it isn't Ye Great Simon Jaeger, Ambassador Extraordinaire, returned from his mission." She muttered as an afterthought, "Who'da thunk it? I remember when you were so ... effectively blunt," and Simon playfully smacked her.

"Ye strange glowy one," Simon said, "as you so amusingly call him, made sure it wasn't dangerous. But I'll be having fucked up dreams about that place for weeks."

"Believe me," Sayeh said, "I _still_ have fucked up dreams about it."

"Great," Simon said.

"Come on, Clarissa was just coming over for a few cocktails. You should come with us."

"Oh for normal, unaltered food," Simon said. "Please tell me you have something with chocolate in it. I haven't seen chocolate in months."

"That's the downside to living in Krenelia space for any amount of time," said Sayeh as she unlocked the door and ushered them in. "No chocolate! It's too basic." She sighed dramatically, pressing her hand over her heart. "I don't know how I lived." She grinned, pulling the door shut behind them. "Next time I'm requesting that I'm allowed to bring a supply, as long as someone remembers the PH is basic and seals it. Can't have ship's alarms going off left and right, I don't want Ye Great One mad at me. Scary shit man, I saw it once, thankfully it wasn't directed at me. And it was in my first week there. Him mad at you is like, rumble rumble, here comes the earthquake. Or rather boom, there goes your ship." She led them into the living room. "Feel free to use my couch." She dashed into the kitchen, calling back, "I have a surprise!"

Simon and Clarissa sat down on her fluffy velvet couch. The apartment was elegantly furnished, filled with antiques, sculptures and fine paintings. Clarissa supposed when you had several billion credits in your pocket, having beautiful homes across the galaxy didn't seem like much.

As she and Simon looked about, they noticed they weren't alone in the living room. In one of the rockers sat a tall man, whose brown hair came to just below his ears, whose odd blue on blue eyes seemed to be constantly in motion, watching everything, whose body was clad in silver light armor over a black color skeam that reminded one unnervingly of caiden Shadowblade. This was Maerlyn, perhaps one of the most mysterious members of the Azhaani was approximately 42 years old (although it was impossible to pin his actual age down with any certainty), a man whose past was shrouded in mystery, even to himself. He was completely devoted to his family, and would fight any to the death who even thought of attempting to harm them.

Following him was a rose fleece lined hovering triple stroller patterned with kittens, which held his three children, Adriana, Julia, and Alaura, all three of whom were currently looking around the room and smiling. Beside him, in one of the other chairs, sat his wife, Feliz, who was nearly as tiny as Sayeh herself. She was currently holding Maerlyn's hand and smiling up at him. Also close at hand were two droids in female dress, his security droid, Xena, and his medical droid, Rani.

Sayeh returned with a tray, which she set carefully on the table. Clarissa picked up a fragile swirled crystal glass and a delicate crystal plate with a slice of chocolate pie on it. Sayeh quickly filled her glass with wine and Clarissa sipped appreciatively.

"I didn't have too much to make drinks with so the cocktails are off for now. I thought I had more than I actually did." Sayeh suddenly got very serious. "Simon, the last transmission from the Krenelia was just a day after you left. Otherwise ... silence."

"They've never been incredibly talkative," Simon said.

"Simon, it took you a month to get back. Now that relations have improved, I was observing a more consistent exchange. But they've fallen silent and we can't raise them at all. I was forced to inform HG of the deteriorating situation, and I informed them that it would be unwise to keep trying to raise them."

"Not that our attempts were very successful before we stopped trying," Maerlyn contributed.

"You basically told HG to abandon them," Simon said. His voice was devoid of emotion, but directed with a quiet force.

"No. I was trying to help them," Sayeh returned.

"How is abandoning ...""

"Where is your _mind?_ Do you know what associating with us," she stabbed a finger at her chest, "_humans, could_ mean?"

"But you're _not_ human," Simon said.

"That was low, and you know it," Clarissa shot at him.

"My genetics are not relevant to this discussion," Sayeh said in a flat, cool voice.

"But," he said irritatingly, "it was true."

"That isn't the point, Simon. You can be all nice around someone else, but when it comes time to interact with humans again, you're going to turn into a complete ass?"

"No, that's not it, not in the ..."

Clarissa stood up. "Well, Sayeh," she said, setting down her empty glass, "call me when we can talk together, since no one else can be fucking calm and civil. I came to get away from the politics, not to see who could throw the lowest blow."

"no one was trying to traid low blows," Maerlyn said, "but I will admit that that particular remark was more than just a bit uncalled for in this conversation."

"Maerlyn, the perfectly rational one," Clarissa said, turned and stalked out.

What was with them? Since Sayeh had gotten back from Krenelia space she'd seemed quiet, too quiet, and she'd practically been avoiding everyone. She'd have to ask Sareela what was wrong with her eventually, if she even knew what Sayeh'd seen that shook her up so much. It was no use asking Maerlyn. Though he was close to Sayeh, he wouldn't repeat anything Sayeh didn't want him too. Trying to get past his defenses was like trying to fight one's way past thousands of ground Praelor without getting so much as one drop of acid on you.

She heard a footstep behind her, and heard the energy discharge of a stun weapon. Too late! She went down hard, crippling agony lancing through her body. She fought to scream, any sound or movement at all. Being stunned was always disorienting, and for days afterward you were left in an edgy state, irritable because of the residual aches in your body, paranoid that someone might round a corner and stun you, and jumpy every time you even felt the slightest tingle, tense and ready to move at a half-second's notice. It was thoroughly irritating and exhausting, but it eventually wore down to a manageable level. It was sadly no wonder that the suicide rate was high, and Clarissa knew Sayeh had happy dreams about torturing people who liked to drive pilots to suicide.

Her attacker dragged her to a half-standing position and hauled her into the docking bay. Clarissa struggled with every last ounce of determination she could muster, but it was no good.

Her flight control scanner crackled into life: "This is flight control in Human-Krenelia Construction Site, we detect ninety Krenelia starships inbound."

A male voice above her head cursed inventively. She was hauled into a ship and dumped unceremoniously in the airlock, where she lay unmoving, face pressed against the cold metal floor.

The flight control scanner chirped again. "This is flight control in Miriani, we detect one Krenelia starship inbound." That would be their emissary, she thought. They'll go to Pax. Sayeh will be there, Simon will be there. I can get out and find them. They'll know who did it. But there won't be time for stunning and stranding now. Why is there such a big Krenelia fleet coming in anyway?

She felt the ship lift off, the push to escape the station's gravity pressing her painfully into the metal floor. The stun turret nearby oriented toward her and pulsed a fresh burst of agony through her body.

A short time later the ship began its descent and settled lightly into another docking bay. Clarissa prayed for a diversion, any diversion. The stun turret fired at her several more times, until her vision grayed and her body screamed with fire, and then she heard the tramping of booted feet. The airlock hissed open and Boots walked in. Clarissa watched them pause by her head. A stream of warm, foul-smelling liquid hit her and there was the sound of masculine laughter.

"Bitch, see you in Hell."

She wanted to vomit. She wanted to scream and curse and beat him to a bloody pulp. Yet she lay there in desperate, humiliated silence as the man's urine began to cool on her clothing. He turned and left the ship without a backward glance.

Her comm beeped. Sayeh's voice came out of it. "Clarissa? Why are you in Castor Hemlock's ship? Clarissa, please talk to me."

Beep, and Simon: "Clarissa, when you can, comm me please."

Beep. Rachel Shadowblade: "We're coming to get you. You'll be all right."

Her eyes burned with tears she couldn't shed and she screamed silently: No, no, I won't be all right!

Beep. Lillian: "I'm coming to get you. I can't believe he'd use the Krenelia's emergency to capture you."

Beep. Maerlyn: "Sayeh told me what happened. Hang in there. There is, to the best of my knowledge, chocolate in Sayeh's ship. You won't have to deal with the stun pain for very long."

Beep. Sareela: "If it's any consolation, Sayeh and I will torture him for you."

Mental sigh. Thanks, Sareela, she said silently. If only she was telepathic like Sayeh. Stun energy surely couldn't block that; they hadn't designed stun weapons with telepaths in mind. Sayeh and Sareela could work in tandem, like two pieces of a whole, with a touch closer than skin linking them across distances of hundreds of light years. Sayeh and Maerlyn shared that ability as well, but Maerlyn sometimes went on a hair trigger, doing things on impulse. Sometimes that got him in trouble, others not so.

The agony faded slowly, over a period of what felt like years, eternities locked in silent screaming. Finally she could move, slowly and painfully, but she could move nonetheless. The first thing she did was reach for her comm and croak through a throat dry as sandpaper: "Sayeh, I'm OK, I'm OK ..."

She peered out, and the docking bay was empty save for the ranks of silent starships, their viewports like dark eyes staring out at her. Mustering more strength than she thought she had, she forced herself into a standing position and staggered out of the airlock and down the ramp. She collapsed in the ship's shadow and whispered into her comm, "Sayeh ..."

Mere seconds later Sayeh ran out of one of the corridors and hurried across the docking bay. Clarissa waved her over and she ran to her.

"Shit. Come here, there's a shower and clothes in my ship, not to mention chocolate, thanks to Maerlyn. Then we have to hurry, there's a Krenelia Bezation on the docking bay and a Krenelia representative setting up the translator in the conference room."

Sayeh pulled Clarissa to her feet and hurried her across the docking bay and into her battle cruiser, _Justyce._ They went to one of the staterooms and Sayeh laid out a change of clothes and several chocolate bars on the bedside table while Clarissa showered hastily. Less than ten minutes later they were running across the massive, echoing docking bay, past the Bezation sayeh had mentioned, a huge Potateoton-sized craft primarily utilized for the transportation of large amounts of either Praelor, Praelor starships, cargo, or all three at once, to one of the huge corridors (Clarissa hurriedly swallowing a piece of chocolate), through a guarded door and into a spacious room.

Three of its walls were adorned with the insignia of the human alliances, the Hale Collective on the entrance wall, the Commonwealth of Free Spirits to the left and the Alliance of Interstellar Expansionists to the right. Its back wall was of some clear metal, as if the room were open at one end to the vast, star-spangled blackness of space, and along one of the walls, the one bearing the Hale insignia, was a large pane of glass through which anyone in the observation room, which adjoined the conference room itself, could watch the proceedings without actually being part of them. There was a huge circular table in the center of the room, with little microphones at each chair and a red light to indicate that someone was speaking, and over fifty people were seated at it.

Sayeh sat Clarissa down between herself and Sareela. Nahia was on Sayeh's left, Kodonera to her left, Lillian to her left, Feliz to her left, Maerlyn to her left, Cianan to his left, Morpheus to his left, Ryok Shadowblade to his left, Rachel Shadowblade to his left, Estuan Shadowblade to her left, Sen Shadowblade to his left, Jason Shadowblade to his left, and around to faces that Clarissa did not recognize. But she did recognize many of the pilots at the table,Teresa, Christopher and Malcum Hamilton, Billy James, Sharuga Rockson, Simon and the rest of the Salvitor family, Ray Simon, Brice Garrison, Alexander and the rest of the Martellatos, all of the numerous Conlys and Thunderblades (both of which were huge families), Alina Calderon, Aaron Calderon, Abigail Espadero, Esther Kramer, Akara Kramer, Elizebith Craymor, Alina Calderon, Aaron Calderon, Tash Bradshore, Brad Bennett, Caiden and Maria Shadowblade (the only two Shadowblades the Azhaanis had any dealings with, although Sen could also be trusted not to betray them at the drop of a hat), Nikki and Parias Atriedes, Cecelia and Adelita Rivera, Jason and calandria Harkness, Matt Valentino, Bryan Malmeu, Nathon Brown, Edward Rush, Janice Kuolena (a sight that made some gathered there a bit uneasy,) Mariah Fantini, Antoine Carrillo, Nina and Camilla Aurora, Bane Darkheart (clearly an assumed name), Artemis Wild, Alexander and Casandra Voltrace (whose appearance must be stirring mixed feelings among those present), Steve and Sakura Chadori, Oscar Buenoventura (who still seemed to be trying to catch up from his time in a coma), Moy Zee, Kaylee, Rothque and Kitty Torraske, Lilly Tiannen, Will Carter, James Senture, the list went on. Clarissa noted the absence of James Hemlock, Mortimer Webber, Jingo Hoezee, Levi Cohen and Castor Hemlock, whom no one wanted to see.

But if Castor wasn't here ... where was he? Clarissa had a sinking feeling about him and hoped to the Gods that she was wrong. But she wouldn't put any cruelty past a man whose eyes most people saw no soul behind. But there was one Unorderly member, Janice, here anyway. She was newer than most here, but she still gave Clarissa an uneasy feeling.

Standing on a raised platform beside the table was a creature whose kind many had seen before, but only in battle. It was of indeterminate gender, standing just above four feet tall, an insect with a faintly glowing multicolored carapace. It had a pair of small, delicate wings folded on its back (but these were of little use) and a deadly-looking stinger (which was also deceptive because it was an evolutionary leftover). It had huge, dark faceted eyes in its triangular face, and a pair of curved, wicked-looking pincers on either side of what could only be its mouth. Despite the fact that some of its physical attributes were deadly enough, the one thing that was its deadliest weapon against most galactic races was its primary method of communication.

It set down a small square device, which faintly pulsed (because it was alive) but was of a hard plastic-like substance. It activated with a hiss, spraying a stream of liquid anyone who had spent any time studying the transcripts of what had become known as the "Praelor Encounter" would have known was a naturally occurring form of acid toward the creature, which it returned. Then a voice issued from the device, surprisingly amplified and clear, like a voice from a living mouth (they had upgraded the old, cobbled-together translator).

"I and my ..." the device paused and then said, "_no-lylh-n'iphaya_ t'vhirneh _taieri_ ..." There was a pause in the sound, and then, "It appears we are having difficulties with the translation. There are some compounds that cannot be translated into your verbal language, so they revert to the verbal systems your linguists devised when they stayed in our space with Ambassador Azhaani."

"That's perfectly understandable," Teresa said, and several others nodded in response.

"My ... _lhyr-anyeh_ ... came to warn you that we may be the last of our kind. I am sure you recall being informed by one of our kind that there are, in fact, three factions or castes of us? The Ontanka, the Krenelia, and the Frnalk?"

Several people seated at the table nodded.

"If I remember correctly," Maerlyn said, "The Krenelia are the most peaceful of the three, the ontanka are the grudge holding type, and the Frnalk are the psychottic mutated ones of the lot, apt to attack anything and everything without so much as a "by your leave". Of course it didn't help that the ontanka used some sort of biological weapon to royally screw up their DNA after the Frnalk caste rebelled against them for some reason known only to them and dropped neutron bombs on them from orbit, an action that not only mutated the Praelor frnalk themselves, but their starships as well. There have been reports of Ontanka using Frnalk ships as biological weapons, but I, personally, have never seen one."

"That is correct," the creature responded, "and it is due to the Frnalk that we are now here and that the entire human race is now in danger. the Frnalk have grown in power, and they now have keen strategists among them, trained by the remnant of the CTN, which is bad news for you and was bad news for my people."

"And how exactly do you think the cTN managed to train them?" Maerlyn mused, "they're not usually interested in learning to communicate with other species. They are, after all, the reason the whole Ontanka mes got started in the first place. And they wouldn't be dealing with anything anyone's ever dealt with before. From what little I know, the Frnalk are crazy. and they don't live for more than a single year before massive organ failior, probably starting with their brains. I could just see that conversation. Hey. Hiss hiss! hi there. Spit spit! We want to ... Char char! It'd keep them amused for hours."

"Maerlyn," Caiden said, "this isn't the time to play the fool."

"I'm sure you're used to his rather curious sense of sarcasm by now, darling," Maria said, smiling and putting an arm around Caiden's shoulders.

"It's not exactly as if humans never betrayed their own kind to the Praelor before," caiden said, glancing momentarily at Alexander Voltrace and never taking his arm from around Maria as he spoke. The latter man held Caiden's glance for a moment and then dropped his eyes. Maria, a gentle alien woman who was widely known for her kindness and her sense of justice tempered with forgiveness, leaned and whispered something to her husband, who pressed a finger against her smooth unblemmished cheek.

"What happened out there?" Sayeh asked softly, but her voice fell through the room, perfectly amplified, almost like something you could touch.

The creature dipped its head slightly and said, "They began attacking the outer fringes of our worlds. We could resist them for a time, but slowly we lost territory. When my ..." (and there was that word again) "... and her fleet left, she was fleeing from the wreckage of one of our core worlds, Nhakk-Aryyti."

at the mention of the planet, Maerlyn glanced momentarily at the creature, as if recognizing either the name itself or something connected with it.

"So," Matt Valentino said slowly, "you led them _here."_

There was an explosion of movement. Simon, whom Clarissa hadn't noticed, was on his feet. "You can't say that, it's not fair at all!"

And the room went mad.

Someone whipped out a stun turret, slamming in a Praelor lethal mag.

"What the hell are you doing you stupid fuckhole!?" Maerlyn inquired, enraged at the man's actions, then he was on his feet, turret drawn and firing before the man could shoot the Krenelia, and a moment later he handed a remote to his security droid, Xena, who, without being ordered to do so, shot the would-be murderer, causing shocked looks to cross several faces near to hand. He fired several more shots in his own right, and at the same moment, Feliz dropped her hand with lightning speed and fired her turret several times from the hip, and the man was down hard, stunned for a good ten minutes. Sharuga Rockson's turret was already out and she was firing as well, adding to the man's stun time. Janice Kuolena was on her feet, moving faster than seemed humanly possible, pointing and shooting almost before anyone could move. Clarissa saw Sayeh jump into the fray, her short, slight frame barely visible in the crush of bodies. Sayeh, Sareela, Nahia, Lillian, Teresa and Morpheus made a protective circle around the creature, stun turrets pointed outward in a menacing ring. Half of them had photoballistic mags that would ensure more stun time and the other half had high-capacity ones, that had twenty-four rather than twelve shots in them.

"I think he's maxed," Caiden said as those surrounding the Krenelia pumped even more stun energy into the man on the floor, "you can stop at any time."

Guards moved into the room to subdue the rest, and they reluctantly put their turrets away and took their seats.

"Why is anyone allowed to bring stun weapons in here in the first place?" Maerlyn asked, seeming to direct the question to nobody in particular, "the only thing I ever saw people bringing stun weapons of any kind in here do is cause trouble. And where the hell were the security agents with the weapon detecters this time around?"

"I wondered that myself," Caiden said in a low voice, "it's not right that they shouldn't be at their usual posts."

"This is completely uncalled for," Teresa said. "The Krenelia didn't lead the Frnalk here knowingly and every one of us at this table with sense knows that. You very nearly killed a friend because of assumptions based on little to no evidence. I'm grateful to those who helped me or he'd be dead." She then turned to the Krenelia. "You are the same who has visited us before?" she asked.

"I am also grateful to those who kept me out of the line of fire, though I am capable of moving quickly enough to do so. ... And, no," said the creature, "he is dead."

There was a little startled outcry at the table.

"He fought until the end for Nhakk-Aryyti, but it was in vain. He lived through the space battle, but when the struggle reached the ground he was not so fortunate. Though he led the force that reached the grounded Potateoton and succeeded in killing the ship and the mother inside, he was ambushed and killed when the Frnalk sent reinforcements."

"You're talking about a massive amount of strategical knowledge," Maerlyn mused quietly, "an amount more closely resembling the recent organization of the Ontanka, not mutated Praelor who are insane. And it's doubtful that Potateoton was frnalk in nature."

Other than Maerlyn's nearly inaudible musings, there was a shocked silence throughout the room. No one moved, no one spoke, and for a minute the seconds fell heavily with a hundred silent, shared thoughts.

"My heart grieves for your loss," the gentle cultured voice of Maria Shadowblade seemed to speak for everyone, filled with a warmth and compassion rarely found anymore. "and I shall offer prayers for his soul, and his candle shall burn in the house of my family."

"Oh, shut up," muttered Rachel. Maria however acted as if she hadn't heard her.

"thank you Kloremra," the creature replied, dipping its head in the direction of the elegant Sallenian woman. Maria bowed to it, the two of them obviously observing diplomatic customs unknown and unshared by the humans in the room.

Sayeh spoke quickly before Marias many friends could round on Rachel and chastize her for her rudeness.

"What can we do to help you? What can we all do to combine our efforts and resist this new, greater threat?"

Clarissa couldn't pay attention to the rest of the meeting. Let the tacticians and strategists among them do that work. When Sayeh had been pushing for an Interalliance Defense Force, little did she know that she'd get an inter-_race_ defense force.

It will always surprise a nonhuman how complacent and corrupt humans can be, yet when threatened with extinction how hardy a species they are. They are not physically strong compared to many, nor are they as mentally capable as some, nor do they have any particularly extraordinary powers. Yet in spite of and maybe because of this, as a species they are strong in endurance, with an unshakable determination to survive. Old Earth's histories mention the Silence, a nuclear war that was predicted to kill all life on Earth. Yet humanity lived.

Someone brought out a map of Alliance space and propped it on an easel. The creature scanned it for a moment and then said, "The Frnalk will most likely attack here," he pointed to Sector 40, "because it is mentioned as a main jump point, here," he pointed to 0, "because it is your central jumpgate hub, here," he pointed to 19, "because of your starship depot, here," he pointed to 35, "because it is the one place any Krenelia can go to avoid them, here," he pointed to 30, "because of Outreach, the capital planet of the Hale Collective, here," he pointed to 13, "because of Acrylon, the capital planet of the AIE, here," he pointed to 9, "because of Angelus, the capital planet of the Commonwealth, and here," he pointed to 12, "because of High Guard Command on Rolukksica. They will most likely send the bulk of their fleets to 12 and 19 and 35, next important will be the capital sectors, and then 0 and 40 so that they will slow you down."

"I doubt Jump Hub's as much of a target any more," Maerlyn said, "ever since that invasion earlier this year when that Ontanka Ohaxx hit the station, people haven't been crewing there for invasions, but they may attack sectors 1, 15, and 115 as well." at this point, he indicated the appropriate sectors on the map.

"Why?" the Krenelia asked.

"Because of Omega station in 115 which contains, among other things, an advanced medical facility, and the asteroid mining and processing stations in 1 and 15," Maerlyn replied, "if they hit those and manage to either occupy them or take them out, we'll be in deep shit if someone gets really badly hurt and it won't be long before we're seriously hurting for bardenium and cardenium, which is the main fuel component for our on-planet recharging systems. I know bard can sometimes be found as free-floating space debris, but the stuff's notoriously unstable and has a nasty habit of blowing up rather spectacularly when the energy net projected by a ship's salvaging lines comes into contact with it. The only really safe way to get hold of it is to bring in asteroids that contain the stuff, and let the people at the asteroid mining and processing stations extract it. No asteroid processing stations, no bard. no bard, no way to load our ships' cannons, and I haven't even touched on the cardenium problem yet. We don't have that, we'll be effectively grounded. in short, they hit the roid stations, we lose half the weapons on our ships and our main power systems, and even if some people manage to keep ships with asteroid rovers intact, the probability of finding asteroids of the proper size for on-sight mining isn't very high, and asteroid rovers and the other equipment that makes on-sight asteroid mining possible share one thing in common with on-planet recharging stations, the need for fully fueled cardenium reacters. One would think that since a lot of asteroids contain large amounts of naturally occurring cardenium that that wouldn't be a problem, but in a mining situation, the stuff doesn't last very long. Reacters constantly running would consume an entire asteroid's worth of Cardenium in less than an hour. Once more, no bard and definitely no lasting supply of fuel for on-sight asteroid mining and our recharging sights if they hit the processing stations. And that's not even taking into account the remote asteroid mining outposts. They'll most likely hit those first before coming into the charted sectors. If the Ontanka are involved in this business too, all they'd have to do would be to send an Ohaxx and a few Bzani and Bzano into those sectors and attack the stations themselves, whilst sending in enough Muzatis, Muzanos, onatis, and similarly well-armed, not to mention assache inducing ships into the sectors to hold off any attempts at rescuing the pilots trapped either on the stations themselves or in their Roid Haulers."

All eyes turned to Maerlyn, who had, it seemd, just informed them all as to just how bad the situation could get.

"And 15's important for another reason too," he continued, after allowing the news of just how completely fucked humanity could be if the wrong things were done at the wrong time, or the right one, depending on whose side one was on to register.

"And what's the reason you're thinking of?" Matt inquired, looking at Maerlyn as if he had nothing to actually contribute, but needed to be humorred.

"Apart from Malascre, the roid mining station in this sector," Maerlyn said, "there's the conglomeration of Pax stations, the hub of strategic operations for the 40 alliance sectors, then there's Empanda, which is, you could say, one of the residential and comercial hubs of human occupied space. They hit empanda, they effectively cut our throats. A great many people live on Empanda. They cut that off, a great deal of man power is taken from the defence of the other sectors. They'll probably also hit Sector 29 too ..."

"And why would they bother with 29?" Allon Martellato asked, "I think you're barking up the wrong tree again."

"Because it's the linking point for the jumpgates leading to sectors 31 on up," Maerlyn replied.

"All a pilot would need would be a ship equipped with a good wormhole drive ..." Allon began, but Maerlyn cut him off, earning a dirty look in the process.

"And what if you were caught in a ship like an asteroid hauler or a freighter? You can't exactly increase the range of an industrial ship's FTL drive. You've got to work with what you've got, and if the Frnalk attack 29 and there are industrials in the sectors served by 29's linking point, they're sort of screwed. Remember that invasion last year when the Ontanka hit Sector 26 and somehow managed to temporarily take out the jumpgate? No one could get in or out, and that's not even taking into account the multiple Muzaties in the sector. If the Frnalk do something similar in 29, no way in, no way out, no matter how long the FTL range on any ship you might have in there is. And another reason they'd attack it is the research station there. I have no clue what they're working on there, apart from what they managed to learn about the static ship they had captured there before that CTN renegade Marinda Deliav stole a non-commitioned battle cruiser, attacked the station and managed to free it, but I'm sure they've got some pretty interesting work going on there."

"And you think they know that much about the way we're organized?" Matt asked.

"They probably do," Maerlyn answered, "if they know enough about us to hit Hub and all three capital sectors along with 35 and 40, they know about the asteroid processing stations and their importance too, not to mention the Pax stations and Empanda."

"But how would they have gotten hold of information that detailed?" Sareela inquired.

"Probably from whoever's been feeding them information from the beginning," Maerlyn said simply, "but at the moment we should be a bit more concerned about how we're going to respond to the problem rather than throwing out time consuming questions as to how we suddenly found ourselves in a situation that's totally fubar."

"Fubar?" the creature inquired.

"Fucked up beyond all recognission," Maerlyn replied.

"I'll send _Justyce_ to 35," Sayeh said.

"I'll bring _Venom_ into 40," Matt said.

Rachel muttered, "Really now."

"I'll send _Dauntless_ into 12," said Brice.

"I can send _Galactic_ _Storm_ into 13," Billy contributed.

"I'll send _Mortal_ _Curse_ to Jump Hub in 0 right away," Teresa said.

"_Demonic_ _Terror_ will be in 30," Alexander Martellato stated. Clarissa raised an eyebrow.

"I can have Light Of Fire in 19," Cianan said.

"And I can have sapphire And Steel in 15," Maerlyn said, "as soon as I get it off Rolu."

Janice Kuolena spoke up. "I have a BC," she said. "_Silent_ _Madness._ I can crew it and send it to 9."

Everyone stared at her.

"You have a battle cruiser?" Ryok asked, sounding skeptical.

Janice flipped her thick blonde hair. "I am not a blonde ditz. I do work for things."

"Why would the colour of your hair matter?" Maria asked, reaching up to touch her own deep gold locks below the diamond encrusted tiara that rested above her beautiful and now puzzled face. Strangely, this caused many people at the table including Matt Valentino to laugh, lightening the tention in the room somewhat.

"I've never seen it," said Estuan.

"Her hair?" Natalie west asked, showing that she really was as tired as she currently looked.

"No," Jason West replied, "her BC."

"It's in my garage on Empanda," said Janice, "fully upgraded. What of it?"

"I don't think anyone's denying it or challenging you," said Teresa. "It seemed unexpected because we had never seen it."

"She never launches the thing," Lilly Tiannen said, "I had no idea its upgrades were all installed."

"Upgrades to a BC cost like hell," Maerlyn said, "why do you think it was a while after I first got _Sapphire_ _and_ _Steel_ before you saw it launch for the first time? Beyond the standard upgrades like hull, rel drive, slip drive, laser and cannon upgrades, laser reflectors, repair upgrades, galactic map unit, navi, long range scanner, both directional and otherwise, long range broadcast, storage upgrades, and solar panels, there's internal security to think about, and you're talking nearly a billion credits for enough internal stun turrets and drones to make certain you're well protected against anyone who may decide to get in there and start screwing around."

"You're talking about human intruders, such as pirates," Natalie West contributed, sipping a cup of coffee Jason had just gotten from his food robot and given to her, "but if Praelor manage to penetrate the BC in question, the only thing you can do is draw your turret, start shooting, and hope."

"It's not often that Praelor penetrate ships," Maerlyn replied, "it happens every now and again, but not often enough to worry about over much."

"You're talking about Ontanka here, not Frnalk," Sayeh said, "but I do understand where Maerlyn's coming from where the cost of upgrades is concerned. You almost have to concentrate on said upgrades and nothing else."

"Don't remind me," Caiden said quietly, "considering how many asteroids I hauled to replenish my private fund after I bought and upgraded _Vindico_ _Atrum,_ bardenium prices should have been next to nothing for a couple years at least."

"And that was a couple years ago," Maerlyn said, "and upgrade prices have gone up a bit. Considering how much hauling I did to buy the upgrades for sapphire And steel, i'm surprised there's an asteroid left within 50 light years of any of the asteroid processing stations."

"They just keep drifting in," sareela said, "and it's a good thing too."

"I don't flaunt the fact that I have a battle cruiser either," said Cianan.

"That's because you can't fly it," Rachel muttered. "You made someone else take the test." And she coughed behind her hand.

"You're just pissed off because neither you or Estuan can pass the test and get one of your own," Cianan said, "and do you need a cough drop or something?"

"You are looking at the guy who blew Allon Martellato out of space earlier this year in a duel in which Allon only got in two hits all totaled," Maerlyn said, "and it's not possible for someone to take the BC test for someone else. If it were, we'd have God knows how many people faking BC licenses."

"That's also why Elizebith craymor doesn't own a BC," Caiden said coldly, "if she'd spent more time learning the finer points of piloting and less time playing the whore, betraying people, and helping people like Allon steal their ships, she'd have one, but as it is ..."

"Darling," Maria said softly, inclining her head toward the creature. "Please, not in front of our guest." Caiden caressed his wife's bare shoulder below the strap of her elegant but revealing formal gown.

"I only wish to make certain that Miss craymor doesn't get above her station," he said quietly.

"She did help us during the business with Force last year," Maerlyn contributed.

"On her terms," Caiden responded, "and she sometimes provided just as much aid to Force as she did us. Do you recall the time she nearly got us killed during a duel between battle Cruisers?"

Ignoring the comments from Caiden, Cianan glared at Rachel, who in her turn, glared at Maerlyn.

Sayeh said, "Now now children," and Rachel and Cianan both glared at her. Maerlyn, meanwhile, faced front once more, his face, for the most part, expressionless, what Sayeh called his "droid mode."

"In my culture," Maria said lightly. "It is considered quite impolite to express such discord before foreign visitors, or to speak of things of which they are not familiar." Sayeh stared at Maerlyn and he said innocently, "What? Don't look at me in that tone of voice!"

Caiden smoothly interjected, "Maerlyn. You are clearly not functioning at full mental capacity."

"What's new?" Matt Valentino asked. Several people threw looks in his direction.

Maria lay a gentle red-nailed hand on the back of matt's hand. Matt looked down at the small, elegantly shaped hand with its deep crimson nails, (not polish but their actual colour), and turned his hand over so that he could give the small delicate hand a squeeze. Maleena viera, Matt's current fling, glared jealously at Maria, who cleanly ignored her.

There had always been a strange friendship between Matt Valentino and Maria shadowblade, predicated on a mutual showing of trust that had begun the day that the young woman had landed her freightor and, on nothing but the strength of an honest answer to a question had bravely met Matt Valentino on a landing pad with no weapon drawn and completely unguarded, repaying honesty with trust, as was the honourable thing to do acording to her people. Maria wore on her jeweled arm the friendship bracelet Matt had given her, and she had never asked for any favors from him because of that friendship, for to ask a favor is to make oneself a beggar. There had never been anything sexual between them, and never would be as Maria was married, but it was obvious that Maleena had no understanding of Sallenian culture and religious belief, or simply didn't care.

"How long do you think it will be until they get here?" Morpheus asked, nicely bringing the conversation back on topic.

"Twelve standard hours at the earliest," the creature said, "three days at the very latest."

"But that gives us so little time to prepare," said Ryok.

"We usually have even less time than this to prepare for invasions," Maerlyn said, "a hell of a lot less, come to that. Sometimes we get a ten minute warning on flight control, that is if the experimental long range scanners on Casus Station and the remote outposts pick up the incoming Ontanka ships. But other times, we don't know they're coming till they're practically right in our laps. Remember that business with that Ontanka fleet that invaded all 40 sectors and concluded things by occupying Saturn with ground forces and capturing a Hale scientist and bringing over 30 Muzatis and Muzanos into the sector to keep any ships that went in there from leaving for repairs? We didn't have any warning what so ever that time and we still managed to repel them. In short, we're usually as ready as we'll ever be during that ten minute grace period, and even when we have no warning at all, we usually get the job done."

"I need a crew," Sayeh said. "We all do. And Maerlyn, you're talking about Ontanka invasions. Nothing like this."

Sayeh was four foot two, a tiny fragile woman with piercing golden eyes and long, fine, almost feathery hair. She had hollow bones; nearly anyone could pick her up, and her back was at an odd slant because of the warped beginnings of wings under the skin, which made her look even shorter. Yet despite her size, her presence took up the space that she lacked.

"The problem is finding seventy really, really good pilots," Sen said.

"We'll need pilots who not only have stamina, endurance and strength but a lot of skill," Matt said.

"All we'll really need would be seven actual pilots," Maerlyn said, "seven really good engineers, ... and ... fifty six good gunners. Oh, and engineers who can be trusted not to system 1 the ship at the wrong moment."

"I guess that leaves Alexander Voltrace and Elizebith craymor out of the equasion," Caiden Shadowblade said.

"I will engeneer," said Maria gently, squeezing her husband's hand this time.

"Caiden, shut up," Elizebith said.

"Does someone around here have a death wish?" Cianan asked, boggling at Elizebith craymor, "do you really want to make certain that there'll be no future members of either the Craymor family or the family of whichever poor son of a bitch you finally seduce into getting you pregnant?"

"Enough!" Maria's voice now rang out commandingly. "We have a guest."

"Fuck off, bitch!" Elizebith retorted. "I don't remember anyone putting you in charge."

At this, Caiden, Matt, Maerlyn, Cianan, Senn, and several other pilots stood, once again drawing turrets. Seyeh and Feliz jumped in front of Maria, whom they knew would not draw a turret or shoot anyone, especially in front of a guest.

"Sit down and shut up, Elizebith," Maerlyn said dangerously.

"And never insult my wife again," Caiden added before taking his seat and once again wrapping his arm around his wife's shoulders, "unless, that is, you don't want to live past this conference."

"actually, I miscounted," Maerlyn said, taking his own seat and once again bringing the conference back on topic, "add another pilot, eight more gunners, and another engineer to the equasion. After all, Light Of Fire's probably not going to just sit on a landing pad somewhere while all this is going on."

"The question is," Edward Rush said, "who's teaching the Praelor tactics to counteract our own?"

"The remnants of the CTN could do it," said Jason Harkness.

"Unless," Nikki Atriedes said, "one of our own did it."

Everyone turned to look at Alexander Voltrace, who sighed as if in resignation.

"Not this bullshit again," he said bitterly.

"Well, people do have a bit of a reason to suspect you of that sort of thing," Caiden said in a low voice, "you were gone out of locals for years after that supposed honor mission and you could very well have been the one to set this particular sequence of events into motion. You do, after all, have more than a bit of a past with the Ontanka. How do we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you didn't do this too?"

"We've got more than a bit of a reason to suspect him actually," Maerlyn contributed, giving Alexander a cold look of his own to add to Caiden's, "and not just where it concerns giving top secret technology to the Ontanka or what he may or may not be doing where the frnalk are concerned. If he is involved, we'd better hope none of us loses a ship. Who knows? Our escape pods may not launch. There have been rather a lot of incidents of that happening over the last couple years or so."

"There's also the matter of how he managed to communicate his intentions to the Ontanka when he gave them EM pulse technology," Caiden said, "if we can figure that out, perhaps we'll know how the Frnalk are being taught to counter our tactics."

"Probably some sort of implanted communications device," Maerlyn said, "after all, spies on old Earth had things like that grafted to them in various ways. Who's to say the Ontanka didn't do the same thing?"

"The Ontanka know how spies on old Earth did things?" caiden asked, boggling at Maerlyn.

"I don't know," Maerlyn said with a smile, "more likely, Voltrace gave them the idea."

"Wait," said Sayeh, "now isn't the time for infighting. The Frnalk will expect it; in fact they could have agents among the humans or Krenelia who will try to create it. No offense to either party," she said, "but it's only logical."

"And especially not in front of a guest!" Maria reinterrated, obviously extremely embarrassed by this time.

"None taken," the Krenelia present said. "It is something we too have tried to prepare ourselves for. However our mothers have a shared telepathic network, separate of the network each has with her consorts and children. This gives us an advantage over your race, which is disconnected. No offense intended, because this is an insult among our race. I do not mean it as such in this context."

"None taken," Teresa said.

"I just have one question," Maerlyn said, directing his attention to Sayeh, "how exactly would they have agents among us to cause in-fighting? It's not exactly as if they'd be able to pass on orders from long distances, at least not to any great number of people. And if it were the Ontanka we were currently preparing for, that'd be a bit more of a possibility, but since we're dealing with frnalk, who know very little about us apart from what they've already somehow been told, I don't see it happening. Among the Krenelia I can understand, but us?"

"Most likely the same people who are teaching them tactics to counter our own," Sayeh replied.

"That means you're implying that it's not CTN doing this, but someone here," Maerlyn said, "and if it isn't Alexander Voltrace, I can think of only one person, or group of people, who'd have enough son of a bitch in them, not to mention the motivation, to do it. Caster Hemlock and Unorderly, anyone?"

"Caster's thing is stunning random women, usually women with babies," Feliz contributed, "not betraying humanity to the Ontanka or the Frnalk, dear."

"Maybe he's branched out," Maerlyn replied, smiling at Feliz as he spoke.

"You say we should discourage infighting," Matt said, "and I don't actually disagree. But if we have a traitor in our midst, they should be apprehended."

"But the traitor could be someone unexpected," Sayeh said.

"You spent over a month in what amounts to Praelor space," Matt said. "And you're not fully human. I don't think you should bring something like that up. Someone might ... get the wrong idea."

"Maria Shadowblade isn't human at all," Elizebith pointed out, her face twisting into a nasty smile. Caiden, Matt, Maerlyn and severaal others glared at her.

"That's ridiculous," Nahia said, "and you know it."

"I can't stand you, Maerlyn," Matt said. "Shut up."

"You say she spent a month in Praelor space," Maerlyn said, turning cold eyes on Matt, "but what you neglect to mention is that the Praelor space in question is or was controlled by the Krenelia, not the Ontanka. On the other hand, there are some questions concerning your involvement with the Ontanka. Like, for instance, why there was a massive Ontanka invasion in Sector 12 on the very day you captured me last year, causing rescue attempts to be put on hold till the Potates and the resulting Bzani could be gotten rid of. And why you didn't crew _Venom,_ putting your feud with me on hold till it was over? And then there's the matter of your org's betraying High Guard in an attempt to establish yourselves as the centralized power in the galaxy. If I were you' I certainly wouldn't go pointing fingers, unless you want a whole galaxy's worth pointed at you in return, and a load of questions asked that'd make you and the rest of your people more than just a bit uncomfortable."

Sayeh sighed. "Here we fucking go again."

"Would everyone _be_ _quiet?"_

Everyone looked at the Krenelia, usually slightly sarcastic yet quietly so, in undisguised shock.

Maria gasped as if struck, and the Krenelia once again inclined its head slightly toward her, seeming to communicate something to the young woman, who suddenly smiled, an action which lit up her whole face.

"Effective," Simon said dryly, and smiles cracked glum or hostile faces all around the table, lightening the mood some.

"Now," said Bane Darkheart, clapping his hands together, "I know we're all terrible at planning ahead, but here's a chance to practice."

"I know most of you hate him," Sayeh began when voices were raised, "but he's done a lot more planning ahead than a lot of us. I'm not saying he's the best at it, I'm just saying that he's done it. Humans have gotten complacent with only disorganized Ontanka fleets showing up now and then. Remember the ground battles earlier this year on Zander and Rolu? Those Praelor were organized."

"Don't remind me," Sareela muttered from across the table.

"High Guard had to come in and help us," Estuan said, "and I don't just mean a small fleet of ships. They actually had to bring in ground troops."

"There was a grounded Potateoton on Rolu and they forced entry into it," Ryok said, "and you don't want to see what kind of forces came out of there."

"She must have sent a distress signal because it started fucking raining Muzano on our heads," Rachel said, "they wiped the ground with those HG soldiers. I've never seen Ralph more pissed. I mean, that was one hyped up pissed off little monkey!"

"Shit on that," Maerlyn said. "I've never seen more ground Praelor in one place, not even that time last year I ended up finding their damn nest on Kronophagia when I was jumped by twelve of them at once. On Rolu, there were twenty of us and a bunch of HG guys and about fifty of them on the landing pad alone. We were all damn lucky I used _Sapphire_ _and_ _Steel_ to get us there, as everyone needed the med bay when it was all over. There wasn't one of us who didn't look like we'd just stepped out of a giant waffle iron."

"You clearly didn't see what it was like on Miriani," Alexander Voltrace said.

"Of course not," Maerlyn responded, "I was still in Academy when that whole thing happened, but I've heard enough. And I saw what the Ontanka left of the planet." Sayeh noticed, even now, that Maerlyn differentiated between Ontanka and Krenelia. Never did he simply say "Praelor," as if they were all the same, unless he was referring to Ontanka ground forces, and he only used the word Praelor in such situations if there wasn't enough time to say something like Ontanka ground forces.

"The Frnalk will be much like that," the Krenelia said, "but worse."

"_Worse?"_ Parias Atriedes asked.

"Probably a lot worse," Maerlyn said, "imagine a bunch of hyped up psycho bugs spitting acid in all directions with intent to kill, not to mention having claws wide open to start ripping and tearing people apart, and you may come somewhere close to what our Krenelia friend's talking about."

"That means we could be in some serious shit here," Parias said.

"No shit, Sherlock," Bane said.

"Yes. There will most likely be battles on Varoshna, Rolukksica, Outreach, Angelus and Acrylon, because believe me, you have not seen them. What they are like now is ... like _ghrriakkhh."_ The word was clearly distasteful to him, whatever it meant.

Maerlyn muttered, "Sounds to me like someone's choking on bits of irrradiated, bard-riddled Ontanka."

"They will overrun our station, but there you cannot help us," the Krenelia continued pointedly.

"Why not?" Maerlyn asked, "I don't want us to be like High Guard is when we're in a fix, just sending in a small complement of ships that usually get blown to shit in a matter of seconds."

"Maerlyn, shut the fuck up," Nathon Brown said. "We have enough problems as it is."

"And if we do nothing to protect their station," Maerlyn responded, looking directly at Nathon, "we'll have even more. I doubt the Frnalk are going to simply invade our capital sectors, hit Casus Station, blow up a few of our ships, and then go home. These guys mean business. Just in case you haven't figured it out yet, these Krenelia are probably the last of their caste. If we don't place all our forces around Rolu when the Frnalk attack, we may have a chance at protecting the Krenelia."

"Let HG clean up Rolu this time," Rachel said. "It's not like they come in and help us much. But when they want us to do something, we'd better be right there at their beckon call. And Rolu is their home base anyway."

"You're thinking of that business last year with that giant Ontanka fleet, including 200 Potates that they somehow detected on the far side of the Praelor jumpgate in 24?" Maerlyn asked.

"Yeah, like that," Ryok replied.

"You couldn't help us because ground combat between Praelor is ... much more brutal than ground combat between humans, or even between humans and Praelor," the Krenelia said. "Even more so when some of said Praelor are Frnalk. Have any of you ever seen them on the ground?"

"No, I don't think so," Nikki said, glancing around.

"I have," Maerlyn suddenly said, "I was only 8 when someone broke into an underground nest of theirs on Aquili. They came swarming out of those caves and killed everyone in the village except me. I only survived because I hid in an underground storage cellar they never thought to look in. But I never actually tried fighting them."

"Oh." The voice had no inflection, but it was deceptively calm. "It will be much worse than you have seen yet. It will be worse than Miriani, if we cannot kill the Potates and Muzano before they reach the ground. I do not foresee that our combined forces can even do that, but we can eliminate some of the ground forces. We will watch ship-to-ship communications and try to warn you which are carrying ground troops so you can try to eliminate those first."

"I'm going to put my gunship in my BC," Sayeh said, "and load that with fighters to run distraction. Matt, can we keep some backup ships on Kronophagia?"

"Of course, why wouldn't you?"

"Good," she said. "I'll have _Feather,_ _Ulekkin_ and _Winter_ _Storm_ on the ground there. They're fully upgraded."

"You can have my gunship there," Ryok said.

"And _Lucianum,"_ Maerlyn said, "to say nothing of _Sapphire_ _and_ _Steel,_ once I get it off Rolu."

"That's all well and good," said Sen, "plan the fine details later. But we're going to need more people than we have."

"We're all gonna ride the pods right into their er, equivalent of wide-open arms if we're not damn careful," Rachel said. "Wait, what's that? Wait, shit on that, I don't want to know."

"Ignore the pessimist," Sayeh said.

"Wait, wait!" Maerlyn cried, his ears informing him that someone, possibly a group of someones, was approaching.

There was a commotion outside, and the guards cleared away from the door with surprising respect.

Three officials, one from each alliance, came in first. "We have an unexpected visitor," one said.

Next came a small entourage of Praelor, which parted to let the creature in their midst be seen. She was big, bigger than any Praelor any of them (apart from the rare pilot who had been on the odd advanced mission) had ever seen. She nearly glowed, light seeming to cascade across her carapace from what looked almost like glittering etchings, odd markings that could mean anything or nothing. Despite the size of her gravid body she was quick and agile, a great dignified glittering insect so odd in appearance that she just was, neither beautiful nor terrible yet as alien as possible. She had a powerful presence; energy seemed to roll out from around her in ripples. She could be a terrible enemy or a powerful ally.

She turned toward her companion on the dais, and their eyes met. Some silent communication, an arc of energy that you could almost feel passing by, passed between them and she turned back to face the humans at the table. Her voice seemed to come from a jewel inset behind her head, against her carapace where it glowed faintly when activated.

"Telepathic receiver/transmitter," Maerlyn muttered. "Interesting."

Before addressing the assembly, the second Krenelia also inclined its head toward Maria Shadowblade and said softly, "kloremra."

"Ne întâlnim în binecuvântarea lui Dumnezeu," Maria returned smoothly in the full, rich Sallenian language, a language that always reminded Maerlyn of flowing water, or the last fading strains of a happy song.

"Speak english," muttered estuan, and Caiden shot him a look in which hate and disgust were equally mixed.

"Trryhlin tells me you may have a problem," the second Krenelia said, addressing the entire assembly now that the strange formality had been completed.

"That's the understatement of the damn century," Ryok said.

The eyes of every Praelor and most of the humans in the room turned and fixed on him, and he fidgeted uncomfortably. Maria gave him an exasperated, disapproving look in which sadness was mixed with the reproach in her slanted blue eyes.

"Indeed," the Krenelia said, "However that is irrelevant." She continued. "I will select several from among you to accompany me ..."

"Shouldn't we, though?" Nikki Atriedes asked. "I mean ..."

"Nikki, shut up," Maerlyn said. Nikki glared at him.

"Look," Bane said, "she has a perfect right to choose who goes with her."

"Oh, Bane," Nikki said, "she doesn't know of some people's character flaws."

"Look who's talking about character flaws, Nikki," Maerlyn shot back.

"Would you all kindly stop disagreeing amongst one another so that Kkhlyyr can continue?" Trryhlin asked icily.

You could hear teeth snap together around the table.

"Thank you," Kkhlyyr said. "As I said, I will select from among you a party to accompany me back to the station. Have no worries; a being of as many years as I knows something of sentient character, be it of my own race or not. Observing you now I have already singled out at least three who will not accompany me, one of whom it would be cruel to ask, and four who will accompany me."

No one was quite prepared for how direct she was, so there was only silence for a moment.

She continued. "What I have to show you is of a nature that, were word of it to spread, could cause terrible strife among your kind. I am _listening,"_ she said this word with odd emphasis, "for sound, clear untortured minds. Is that enough for now?"

"It is," Maerlyn said, sensing her mind reaching for his.

"Untortured?" asked Nikki. "Just what the Hell do you mean by that?"

"Never you mind," snapped caiden, his face suddenly much harder than usual.

There was another commotion outside the door. A man shoved his way through into the room. Clarissa cringed at the sight of Castor Hemlock, his features set in hard, mean lines, his eyes cold and cruel.

"No," she said softly, "watch out!"

Kkhlyyr looked up at her. "Lylh'naii, he has done something terrible to you?" There was a stir among the Praelor, presumably over whatever phrase she had used.

Castor drew his stun turret.

"He's done something terrible to most of us in the room," Sayeh said.

"Kloremra?" Kkhlyyr asked sharply. The other praelor all turned in her direction at this point.

"No," Caiden said softly. "not her, but only because I keep a very close eye on her."

"Only because you deserved it," Castor said, replying to Sayeh's comment.

"Yeah right," Maerlyn said, his hand dropping to his holster, "like we've all done anything to deserve your particular brand of bullshit?"

"And he's _not_ going to do something terrible again!" Sayeh was on her feet, Kkhlyyr was moving, half the pilots at the table were standing, but they had all recognized the danger too late. The small projectile seemed to move through the air in slow motion. There was a scramble of legs, arms, bodies, wings, hands, but ...

The projectile exploded on contact, leaving a smoking hole in Kkhlyyr's side. The great creature swayed on her feet, but Trryhlin and several others were instantly beside her. Maria Shadowblade screamed in pain and horror. Her body reeled as if struck, and Caiden put both arms around her, keeping her from falling to the floor.

Clarissa thought, suddenly, that she might know part of what _lhyr-anyeh_ meant. It was in the way Trryhlin and Kkhlyyr seemed to understand each other, moving in perfect tandem, as if they shared a connection so finely-woven that it was very nearly like being two as one. One already knew what the other was going to do before it was done. It was a balance of movement that Clarissa had never seen before.

"Accept between Maria and Caiden," she suddenly thought asCaiden winced as if physically hurt by his wife's pain. The word assention floated briefly into her consciousness and then was gone.

The shocked silence following Maria's scream lifted and the room exploded, turrets drawn and firing at Krenelia and human alike. Castor's cold, mirthless laugh rode over the sounds of shouting and screaming and energy discharges and the harsh, ragged sounds Praelor made when shot. A small contingent of High Guard soldiers entered the room. Two of them took Castor down and several more worked on his minions.

"Where the hell were you people before he showed up here!?" Maerlyn asked, directing the question at the guards, rage evident in his voice, "he just tried to fucking kill a Krenelia mother! And this after we already damn near had an incident take place in here?"

"Believe me," caiden said, "I intend to find out just how this was possible. And if," here, he fixed the man who appeared to be the officer in charge of the guards with an icy stare, "I find out that you allowed him and his thugs to get in here either because they paid you off or you weren't doing your job properly, you'll wish you'd never seen my face. Not doing your job may be excuseable in a situation in which someone's Gunship randomly gets stolen by a pirate, but this could easily cause a diplomatic incident that could end with us all finishing up caught between the Krenelia, who came to us for help, and the Frnalk, who intend to destroy them as well as us."

Kkhlyyr said, almost in Sayeh's ear (and _how_ had she gotten there so quickly?), "come with me. You, Simon, and whoever else you choose." And she and Trryhlin slipped noiselessly away.

"And I am going to do the most important thing I can do at this time," Maria said softly, still shaking as caiden embraced her. Her face looked drained, an she seemed to be in pain. "I will pray."

"Oh, like that's going to do any good," snapped Nikki. Maria ignored her, and was helped from the room by Caiden. As she passed, Sayeh felt a strange feeling of terror, pain, abandonment and loss so intense that it was almost sufficating, and she suddenly understood something that Kkhlyyr had said earlier. this gentle, kind, gracious, graceful, feminine, devout, compassionate woman who prayed a rosary as naturally and unaffectedly as others loaded stun turrets, who knew a thousand healing remmedies for both mental and physical afflictions, who knew thousands of white magic spells, who knew a million forgotten songs, and whose training had made her a dancer, musician, scientest, diplomat, soldier, linguist, wife and mother, had been tortured beyond the capabilities of any human's ability to inflict pain. She had been tortured until most likely Caiden had won her back from the dark mists of madness, and something, (the hole), had taken most of the pain away. However, the mind within was fragile, and what she had witnessed today had not helped. Sayeh cleared her throat as Caiden exitted, holding his wife close at his side.


	2. Chapter 2: The First Invasion

Sayeh took a breath, pursed her lips, and let out a complex, eerily birdlike trill before she grabbed Clarissa's hand and hauled her out of the room. Nahia, Sareela, Kodonera, Lillian and Daren were right behind her, and Bane followed shortly, Maerlyn and Feliz hot on his heels.

"If I see a single one of you so much as _look_ at another with ill intentions I'll feed you to the Frnalk. Now come on," Sayeh said, and sprinted across the docking bay.

"Does that include any of us looking at Castor with ill intentions?" Maerlyn asked.

"No," Sayeh responded.

"Good," Maerlyn said, "because I have a few ill intentions to look at him with next time I see him."

Sayeh saw Kkhlyyr entering her ship, flanked by a fearsome-looking escort. Kkhlyyr turned and beckoned to her but Sayeh said, "If you don't mind, I'm going to take _Justyce._ I have things to pick up."

Kkhlyyr paused in liquid conference with her companions, and then she said, "So be it. Just remember that we can see the inside of your ship."

"Don't worry about it," and Sayeh absently added a sound that might have been a word, filled with fricatives and odd trilling sounds. There was a little stir over by Kkhlyyr's ship, but Sayeh had pulled the others into _Justyce_ at this point, leading them up to her control room and locking the blast door behind them.

"We're getting _Feather,_ Ulekkin, Winter Storm, Mojo and _Lucianum._ It doesn't make sense to get a gunship, because we don't have a crew for it, not until we get more people. Later I'm going to get Billy, Ray, Malcum, Caiden, Maria, and probably more. But I can only take a few of you in there right now. Things are damned tense, thanks to Castor's little incident."

"Do you think Maria will be able to come?" Feliz asked. "and, what the fucking Hell happened in there? It was almost as if Maria was shot too."

"I don't know," Sayeh said quietly. "and on second thought I don't think that Kkhlyyr wanted her to come."

"why not?" Maerlyn asked. "If anybody's trustworthy, she is."

"Because her mind is delicate," Sayeh said. 'I think that Kkhlyyr's afraid of it fracturing."

"You do know something, don't you?" Maerlyn asked. "Don't treat us like we're kids, Sayeh. Maria's my sister, and I along with caiden have to protect her. What about her do you know that I don't?"

"I don't know anything for sure," Sayeh said. "accept that she is a kloremra, and please, don't ask me about that now. It would take far too long to explain. As to why Kkhlyyr didn't want her to come, that's to do with the sallenian war, and you can't protect her from her own past."

As she spoke she launched and went to Empanda. Sareela took the controls as Sayeh, Feliz and Maerlyn docked their ships, including Maerlyn's Asteroid Hauler, Tilianum and Feliz's Asteroid Hauler, Holly. Clarissa wondered for a moment what they were doing docking non-combat ships in Sayeh's Battle Cruiser, but then figured that if they had enough time, Feliz and Maerlyn would probably make certain bard was flowing, so to speak, to the rearm centers. Sayeh strode back into the control room and jumped from 15 to 35. There was Kkhlyyr with her escort, and Sayeh waited until they landed and a crackling, metallic voice came over her speaker and said, "Access granted. _Justyce,_ you may land." She moved to the station, docked, and stood up.

"Simon, Feliz and Maerlyn," she said. "Come with me. Everyone get out of the CR, but stay in the ship." When they started to open their mouths to respond, she asked, "Do you want to lose space to the Frnalk? I didn't think so."

They vacated the control room and Sayeh strode out of the ship. Simon thought it was a wonder that thunderheads didn't materialize around her. She looked like the messenger of Death come to take you away, eyes cold, face set, body ramrod-straight. Maerlyn's face was totally devoid of expression, but Simon knew well that there was definitely something going on in the man's head. every single bit of information he either was given or obtained in any way while he was in this state was committed to memory and stored there for life. Trryhlin met Sayeh on the docking bay. It looked like a normal docking bay, but there was an odd, translucent airlock that irised open as they approached it.

"I am going to introduce you to someone," Trryhlin said. "He is verbally called Ehnnorai Lyyrrekkhin. He is ancient, even for one of his variety. With age came power, and ..." He turned his head back in a nearly birdlike motion. "He will explain."

They moved through dimly lit tunnels into the heart of the station. Eventually they came into an open room, the only place with high ceilings that Sayeh, Simon, Feliz, and Maerlyn had seen yet. They could breathe a little easier here than in the ambient chemical metal smell of the place. It wasn't the normal chemical metal smell of a new station. Rather it had a silvery-dark bitter tang to it that was slightly unnerving and impossible to place, and the metal smell was more similar to corroded batteries. Vents in the ceiling fanned cool air into the room, human Galactic standard, which the four humanoids appreciated.

There was a Praelor at the end of the room, sitting in a depression on a platform that was raised slightly above the rest of the space. When the creature stood up and advanced toward them, Sayeh couldn't help but to watch in amazement as he approached. He was the biggest Praelor she'd ever seen in terms of solid power. Kkhlyyr would be much smaller if she weren't pregnant, but all of this being's mass was its own. He could look Sayeh directly in the eye, in fact he was taller, whereas Kkhlyyr was just a bit shorter. He could probably even pick her up, if balance allowed. He too had a receiver/ttransmitter jewel, a big sapphire-colored thing inset in the same place Kkhlyyr's was. The two paused in liquid conference and then he turned to the three humans.

"Your renegade, Castor Hemlock, has aggravated already stressed tensions," he said. You didn't have to ask. You knew that this was Ehnorrai.

"We know," said Simon. "They are a small splinter group, called Unorderly. Their actions embarrass us greatly."

"Organizations, orgs, hold more weight among the common humans of the galaxy than the alliances," said Sayeh. "It's complicated political crap."

"Not very complicated," Maerlyn said, "to put it simply, after the original High Guard Command space station in sector 24 went into the Static's black hole and the Ontanka linked a jumpgate to said black hole, High Guard relocated to Roluxica in Sector 12 and did what it could to rebuild itself, paying very little attention to what was going on anywhere else in the galaxy. First the org known as Force made a bid for power that brought about a war that lasted for almost a year, and then Unorderly stepped in after Force was driven back."

"Clearly, you possess the ability to explain situations in such a way that even an outside observer can understand, even if I find some of your terms to be beyond logic," said Trryhlin.

"I am with my alliance," Sayeh said sadly, "but not with many of the people of it. Castor Hemlock was AIE before he switched to Hale. It is shameful."

"That explains much," said Ehnorrai.

Trryhlin left them with him, presumably to go find Kkhlyyr. She had been severely wounded in the skirmish on Pax, and could lose some, if not all, of her children.

"How are you going to respond to this?" Sayeh asked.

"They are renegades," Ehnorrai said. "It is now up to the governments of all three alliances, as this group consisted of members of all three, whether they will be punished under human law or both."

"Tensions are high, even within individual alliances, due to the org wars," Sayeh said. "And there aren't real governments. There haven't been for years."

"The Shadowblades are after every Azhaani in the galaxy," Simon said. "You can't be part of this without aggravating said tensions, Sayeh."

"Not all the Shadowblades," Maerlyn contributed, "sen isn't involved in Estuan, Rachel's and Ryok's activities. neither are Maria and Caiden. As for Brandon, he's hardly ever in locals and he isn't exactly up to speed on what some of his family are doing. one could say that the Shadowblades are equally divided where the current situation is concerned."

"Are these more of your orgs?" Ehnorrai asked.

"No," Sayeh replied, "they're families. Family disputes are separate from org or alliance disputes, but all three can affect one another. In fact, I was once Talavera, before I took, how would you call it?, my own network and became Azhaani, not that I was the first. Cianan has that particular honor. And the head of the Talavera family betrayed him," here she indicated Maerlyn, "shortly after she became a Shadowblade. We were once very close. Maerlyn became an Azhaani, becoming what you'd call part of my network, shedding the Kristos name as his former attachment to the family who adopted him after he graduated Academy, all of whom are dead now thanks to the Org Wars, caused him pain. And he was found to be related to the Azhaanis in any case. So," she spread her hands, "yeah, it's complicated. You're right, Simon, I can't be part of this."

"This presents a problem," said Ehnorrai. "You have spent time among us. Very few have. Simon, will the fact that your name is associated with the Azhaani endanger your involvement in this? And Maerlyn, will your direct connection with the azhaani endanger you as well?"

"Probably," said Simon.

Maerlyn nodded slightly.

"May I be blunt and ask you to take that chance? Surely they realize that humanity and its allies' survival is at stake?"

"They're not reasonable, well, not the ones that really hate me," said Sayeh. "If Parias and Matt talk to them, maybe."

"Powerful members of your race?"

"Yes," said Sayeh.

"Pirates, more like," said Simon.

"Pirates govern your race?" Ehnorrai asked. Was that shock in the emotionless voice, beautifully synthesized though it was?

Sayeh sighed. "Simon says things quickly."

"But it's the truth," Simon returned.

"They're not exactly pirates," Maerlyn said, "Parias only gets hold of people's ships when someone else gives him a key, and the only reason he targetted some of my ships was he had a problem with my sister Nicolette. matt's more of a tirant in waiting. But the two of them could swing a bit of weight where Ryok and the others are concerned. It's not exactly as if he has much use for them. Caiden and maria he respects, more like fears, at least where Caiden is concerned, same with sen. he's liable to get Ryok and Estuan to control themselves long enough to make sure we survive this particular up-coming snafu."

"Snafu?" curiosity in the voice now.

"Situation normal, all fucked up," Maerlyn answered, "an old Earth expression among their military."

"That's not the point," Sayeh said, "I don't intend to lie to anyone. But to put a complicated situation in such black and white terms will help nothing."

"Changing the way that you present such a state of affairs does not change the actual situation," said Ehnorrai. "It only avoids the real problem."

Sayeh sighed. "I suppose you have a point. And we do have a problem, whether anyone is willing to admit it or not. We weren't intending to tell you much, because, well, paranoia, plain and simple. Humans learn paranoia early. Looking through every door before you step through, locking every door and hatch you can lock, learning what to say or not to say to who, flying and gunning faster than your potential enemies, moving quickly and invisibly. Every race probably has its equivalent. Humans are masters of paranoia."

"In this galaxy the way it is now, it's necessary," Maerlyn said, "people like Ryok and Castor make such things necessary. unfortunately we were too shocked by Castor's sudden appearance back there to stop his assassination attempt."

"Can't dispute that," said Ehnorrai.

"Why is it Kkhlyyr said we needed to see you?"

"Because I have discovered a new technique. As we understand, it was mentioned to you that we can create jumpgates, but in a fashion very different from the manner in which you do it. We have also ... done something else. I will only ever ask you to keep one secret from your people, and this is only for the sake of safety."

"What do you mean?" Simon asked.

"We can't make such a promise with no knowledge of what we're keeping secret," Sayeh said.

Ehnorrai looked at them for a long moment, head cocked as if he were listening to something. Simon glanced questioningly at Sayeh.

"I hear no ill intent, but ..." Again he hesitated.

"Ehnorrai," said Simon, "whatever it is, Kkhlyyr wanted us to know."

"There is a being that can naturally fold space," he said, "one creature whose power alone can span the space between hundreds of thousands of lightyears, whose farsight is feared by other races, whose sheer contained energy is such that if they are destroyed without the proper process, _anything_ within three units of space of it will be destroyed. But its kind has only been sent into your space once. If you were to go inside, there is a room that contains a massive structure of living crystal that, until the moment of its death, glows so brightly that no known race can look directly on it without retinal damage. The structure is so hot that if you were to touch it, your skin, and most of the flesh on whichever limb came into contact with the crystal, would melt off. And that is only the surface of it; inside there is so much more energy."

Sayeh, Simon, Feliz, and Maerlyn were very, very still, holding their breaths as if any sound could break what Ehnorrai was saying.

"As cold and practical and emotionless as time, some have been known to say that they see everything. This, however, is far from true. I would know ... because, in a sense, I am one, or as closely linked to one as a being can be, through physical links implanted in my mind centuries ago."

"Centuries," breathed Sayeh. "How old are you?"

"Older than I have cared to count," he said, "and older than I would want to convert to human time. But there is one thing.

"Humans already know this. You have witnessed one in action, creating, with its own life-force and indirectly with the power of the Static, our way into your space."

"Are you ..."" Simon began.

'I think he's talking about the particular type of Praelor ship that created the ontanka jumpgate in 24," Maerlyn said, as if thinking out loud, "right after the Static created the black hole and destroyed High Guard Command."

"But we have done something else," said Ehnorrai. "We can temporarily slow down and manipulate Time. The process is incredibly complicated, and it is not something we would be willing to explain anyway."

"Slow down ... Time?" Simon breathed.

"Now," said Ehnorrai, fixing Sayeh with one depthless eye and Simon with the other, somehow managing to also include Maerlyn and Feliz, "do you see why it is incredibly unwise to inform your race of this power?"

"Yes, but ... why are you telling us?" Sayeh asked.

"Kkhlyyr has her reasons. She has heard our destruction in some humans' minds. If you four know, you can help us, without anyone else knowing how or why, save both races."

"Doesn't that mean you are going to die soon, or just your ship?" said Simon.

"If my ship dies, I will die, and yes, it does."

"You say that so ... carelessly," said Sayeh quietly.

"We're all going to die eventually, some way or other. Dying for a purpose isn't a bad thing, Sayeh, if it's something you consider worth dying for."

"I don't know, maybe it's easier to say for someone who's lived centuries, but ... our lives are so short. We hold on to them."

"Lives are tiny little precious things," said Simon.

"My life is no longer tiny," said Ehnorrai. "In fact, yours aren't, either. I was never sure anyone's lives really were tiny."

"So, what is our place in this?" Sayeh asked.

"You will know when we are moving time. Perhaps we will set up an encrypted communications channel with your ship," he said. "Kkhlyyr has not finalized the plans. We still do not know what is going to happen. She has brought in nine of us, but moving time could create unsolvable paradoxes."

"You're telling me. Every old Earth sci fi series, anyone?" Simon muttered.

Sayeh sighed. "You and your old sci fi."

"How he managed to view any of it is beyond me," Maerlyn said, "as the entire store of the old 2d film discs went into the black hole when High Guard Command in 24 was destroyed."

"We're going to send you back to your ship. You're going to leave and ... Sayeh. Use discretion. It will take more than four humans to help us, but this is the most powerful secret any race has ever held."

Sayeh could feel the weight of it in her mind. If anyone figured out that she knew the Krenelia's secret ... Ryok Shadowblade and his unreasonable, childish hate would be the least of her problems. He'd lied to her and about her solely so he'd have an excuse to hurt someone. Other parties would actually have a valid reason to attack her, which made what they might do to her even worse.

She looked at Simon. She was scared, all of a sudden, like a little child who has suddenly woken up in a strange, dark place and discovered that their bright illusory childhood is gone, like when a good dream very suddenly turns bad, like when you realize that everything, everything, is wrong ...

It is cold, out here in the trackless dark, she thought, clinging to a thoughtscape she'd once been shown when she had visited the Krenelia, after the last Great Convention of Races (which humans had never been made aware of). No one can see you. No one will know if you die. And no one will mourn you. It is the emptiest place, where beings lose their spirits to its cruel grasp. It is silent, out here in the dark. For days I have heard no thought but my own, sensing no transmission except those of the ship, informing me of its surroundings and functions.

Ehnorrai turned both piercing dark eyes on her. "Do not lose hope, Sayeh," he said, damn near gently. "While there is still life, we will resist."

Ironic for you to say, she thought, but said nothing.

Trryhlin appeared at the mouth of the tunnel, taking in the situation with his unreadable, black-on-black faceted eyes. "You have told them," he said.

"I have," said Ehnorrai.

Trryhlin did not respond. Simon, Feliz, Maerlyn, and Sayeh followed him from the room and back to the docking bay. They exchanged their farewells, and Trryhlin stood back, watching the four humans enter the massive ship. Moments later, it lifted off and streaked into the blackness of space, illuminated by the firing of its thrusters as it left the station's artificial gravity.

There was silence as the roar of Sayeh's battle cruiser's launch dissipated into the eternal night surrounding the station. Nothing moved for a moment, as if time were suspended.

And maybe, for a moment, it was.

But maybe it would make no difference.

Sayeh sat in her trusty little expediter, _Feather,_ drumming her fingers on one of the consoles. Simon stood behind her, his hands resting on the back of her chair. Sareela was stretched out on her couch, and Lillian was pacing. Diminutive, delicate and dark of skin, eyes and hair, Nahia sat with her legs folded daintily beneath her on the edge of the bed, immediately beside Feliz, who was currently feeding Alaura from a bowl of what appeared to be some sort of baby version of hotdogs and beans, which the child was merilly dribbling all over herself. Maerlyn paced between the control room and the airlock, as if on security detail. Sayeh used to sleep in her expediter when she didn't want anyone to find her, hence the bed and the rest of the furniture which made the ship look, more than anything else, like a flying one-room apartment.

"Lillian," said Nahia quietly, "would you sit down? And you too, Maerlyn?"

"It's all Uncle Cianan's fault!" Alaura exclaimed, whilst at the same time giving Feliz a look that said, "Ha ha, I made a mess all over myself, the bed, and the carpetting in Aunt Sayeh's ship, and there's nothing you can do about it other than get out a baby wipe and clean me up. The dumb balls that float in these ships'll clean up what I dribbled on the floor, if I don't kick them, or it, if there's only one, first."

Nahia was even smaller and slighter of figure than Sayeh, but she was a full-blooded human. Standing at only three-ten, she had perfect olive skin, delicate, slanted features and liquid dark, almond-shaped eyes. She was very gentle and quiet. She was the sort of person that made you ache to pick her up and protect her, because there wasn't a single mean bone in her body. She couldn't hurt anything, and for that reason alone, Ryok was targeting her too, because she literally couldn't fight back. If she hurt or killed something, she would feel its pain, even if it was her mortal enemy. But she had a brilliant mind.

Lillian sat down next to Nahia. Lillian Azhaani was about five-nine, with a pale complexion, grey eyes, a long nose and a mobile face. Her long, pale blond hair framed her face in the only tamed curls Sayeh had ever seen.

"Look," she said, fixing her pale blue eyes on Sayeh, "what Ehnorrai told you, how is it our business, and how is it his right to endanger us?"

"He's _not._ He's asking us to disregard the short-term consequences so that the long-term consequences favor survival. As he said: cold and practical and emotionless as time. He's a purely logical living mind. He means no harm, but he has no firsthand understanding of emotions ... probably none of pain, either."

He? From what she was coming to understand, he was probably literally an "it," neither gender. Calling someone an "it" was derogatory in human society, and was probably the same for Praelor too. They must have a separate signal for it.

Sayeh slumped in her chair. "I can't do this, you guys," she said faintly. "I have to watch my back because of Ryok and Estuan. They're like Praelor themselves sometimes, like the bad kind. Maybe they're distant cousins." She laughed half-heartedly. She rubbed her forehead. She could feel a headache coming on. "I wish I could believe differently about them. I wish they _were_ different. Guilt over having to hate them, and over being unable to avoid the whole situation that started the feud, which was a completely stupid one, to which everyone, _including_ me, reacted childishly, is still riding on my shoulders. I have to make a name for the Azhaani too, making us strong without making us evil. I have to smooth over everyone's damned disagreements and misunderstandings since the Krenelia came back, and now we're keeping their biggest secret. At least I have Simon and you guys to help me with some of that. And look at me complaining! Someone else could handle this so much better. ..." Her voice trailed away, and then she said softly, on a resigned breath, "I have failed everyone."

"It's because you have no anchor, feather," said Sareela. Sareela had always called her feather. "You need one."

"I need someone who could match my power with his or her power," she said. "Someone I could click with, someone that would be as strong as me without controlling me, someone who'd tell me I was doing something idiotic and who could stand with me and absorb the crap that I can't. We would be two parts of one, balancing each other out." She shook her head. "I'm high maintenance. I'm better off alone."

"You're just not entirely human," said Nahia.

"You told us when you were uncovering your genetic memories," said Lillian. "The anchoring rite is pure sexual energy, and if he can't match what you can give off, then he can't be your anchor. And then it all depends if you click."

"Clicking comes first," she said. She shook her head. "I don't know the inhuman woman that lives in me. You could use the same description for her that old Earth pagans used for the Goddess, maiden, mother, warrior and crone. And lover, too, add that. But she isn't a goddess. And she and I won't understand each other until we: one, get that we're the same person and two, know where we came from, and what we are. _I._ So on top of that whole mess, I have no anchor, which makes me less able to handle it, and I don't even know what I am. I'm not trying to complain, guys, I'm just confused and tired as hell."

"Hey, feather, it's OK," said Sareela. "We're all entitled to a bitch session when things get to us."

"I know, I just feel shitty for loading my problems off on you," Sayeh said wearily.

"Quit it," said Lillian. "Now. We love you, and we don't mind if you vent."

"Thanks, Lill," Sayeh said.

Lily-Marie stirred in her cradle, opened her big, whiteless blue eyes, and started crying.

"Oh, no!" Sayeh said. "Look, I'm projecting now. Poor Lily." She scooped up her adopted daughter, rocking her gently. The little girl buried her face in Sayeh's blouse and clung to the fabric with tiny, surprisingly strong hands.

She could climb walls, her little fingers and toes were so sensitive and strong. It was a little scary sometimes. She'd get pissed off at someone, leap up a wall, sit on a shelf and hiss at anyone who tried to get her down. You had to let her get over it unless you knew you could get her down without falling. Sayeh joked about being driven up walls and dancing on ceilings to keep up with Lily, whose nonhuman blood was even more evident than her mother's.

"I got myself into this mess."

"I got you into the Shadowblade mess," Sareela said.

"No. Ryok just likes to hurt people for fun or something. He's a bit of a sadist. It's only fun to him when someone's in pain. You just happened to be the one he picked to play with, and you are Azhaani. We hold each other together." She extended her arms and they all held on to each other for a moment, feeling the closeness of their mutual connection to Sayeh, and through that, their connection to one another. Sayeh was a natural Nexus. She drew strong connections and formed strong foundations, if you gave her the time.

"But I did everything I could to be what I felt this galaxy needed. I sacrificed everything for the sake of connections, and I could have been just like a lot of people, and lived my own life. If I hadn't tried so hard to hold things up, then I wouldn't be one of those being relied on now. I asked for it. I better take that responsibility, then."

"Sayeh, you alone can't be the glue that holds this connection together," said Simon. "We used to tell you that you couldn't be a heart for the whole world. It's the same thing."

Sayeh rubbed her tired eyes. "I guess. I've got to figure out this anchor shit, guys. The nonhuman in me physically needs an anchor and will sicken without one. My human blood can only be a defense against the effects for so long." She stopped. "I wonder if Kkhlyyr would let me tell her. Her situation is more similar."

"We don't know that."

"You saw how she and Trryhlin were linked. You don't have to be able to hear connection resonances to know that."

"Connection resonances" were what sensitives called bonds they could sense between people.

"Look, it could be totally different. And let's not bug Kkhlyyr."

"If she hears it, she'll bring it up. So you have a point."

"She and Maria were linked, too," Feliz said, bringing the point up again. "In fact, Maria seemed linked into all of them. When Kkhlyyr was shot, I would swear that Maria felt it. And, there was that silent communication between Maria and Trryhlin."

"I know," Sayeh said quietly. "that's why it's different. I will never need a kloremra."

"What the Hell is a kloremra?" Maerlyn asked.

The flight control scanners worn by all of them beeped simultaneously. "This is flight control in Rolukksica, we detect shots fired! Repeat, shots fired!"

"What the christing fuck?" Maerlyn inquired, staring at nobody in particular, "what fool's shooting in 12?"

"_Shit!"_ said Sayeh, hands flying over the controls. "I've got to activate a communications link here so that they'll give _Feather_ docking access, ..."

"Sayeh," Maerlyn said, "Feather's in Justyce's docking bay. Why would you need to get docking access for your expy when it's inside a ship that already has docking access?"

"It doesn't matter which ship you try to land here, Sayeh. Docking access for your ships is tuned to your biorhythm," said Simon. "Ship picks it up and transmits it. Calm down." Simon sat down on the couch beside Sareela, who scooted herself into a sitting position for him. "We don't _have_ to go, Sayeh."

"What's wrong up there?" Feliz asked.

"Nothing, yet," Maerlyn replied, "apart from some idiot with too much weaponry at their disposal and not enough brain cells in their heads exercising their fingers on firing controls for no remotely understandable reason."

Maria and Caiden had entered Vindico Atrum almost immediately before Sayeh and the rest of her family had entered Justyce and jumped to sector 35. caiden had tended to Maria, said tending consisting of making her a strong cup of coffee and dropping an herbal remedy known only to Selenians into it. From that point, the two of them had settled down to wait. They both knew that soon they would need to choose an asteroid processing station and start hauling, but for now, Maria needed to heal thanks to the shock induced by Caster's attempt to kill Kkhlyyr, and also that her original plan to spend a bit of time in prayer had to be put on hold, apart from the prayers she offered up from Vindico Atrum's control room.

They had almost made their minds up to launch, land on Empanda, and switch from Vindico Atrum to Maria's Asteroid Hauler, Hard Rock Summer, when Caiden noticed movement on the display screen that showed the input from the ship's external camera. Janice Kuolena, Jingo Hoezee, Mortimer Webber, James Hemlock, Levi Cohen, and Lauren Jensen were gathered on Pax Neutral's docking bay, their droids and drones following. Ordinarily, caiden wouldn't have given this a second thought, as beyond the "no stunning" areas of Pax Neutral, it was entirely possible to get stunned and kidnapped at any time, but the way the group was standing close, heads together as if discussing some sort of secret endeavor, made Caiden's alarm bells go off at top volume, and when that happened, experience had taught him that it was a good idea to listen.

"Now what are those six up to?" he asked.

Maria glanced at the display screen.

"I don't know and I don't like it," she answered.

"Neither do I," Caiden said, "I'd almost think they were planning something. That could mean no more than a simple kidnapping at turret point or it could mean something else altogether. Piracy springs immediately to mind."

"You don't think they'd try something like that with things the way they are now?" Maria inquired.

"Most of them I know," Caiden replied, "and most of them I don't trust. Piracy at a time like this certainly wouldn't be beyond any of them. This new one, this Kuolena, is an unknown quantity. I've not encountered her enough to know what her agenda is, or if she even has one, but since she's huddled with the rest of them, it can't mean anything good."

"But she fought on our side when that pilot drew a turret," Maria protested, "and again when Caster and the rest barged their way in and tried to assassinate Kkhlyyr."

"Ever hear of the double bluff?" caiden inquired, "I think that's what she's doing. get us trusting her whilst she carries out her real plans."

"You've got to be one of the most suspicious people I've ever met," Maria said with a smile, "but in this case, I don't like what's going on out there any more than you do."

"And I think something should be done about it before things out there go too far," Caiden said.

"Almost everyone's back on Empanda, darling," Maria said as she moved to exit the control room and take up position in the engineering room, "we won't get much of a crew here."

"Perhaps not," Caiden replied as he stood, put his arms around Maria, and aided her in moving to her position, "but that's what private comms links are for."

Caiden helped Maria into her engineer's chair, buckled her in, softly kissed her, made certain that there was a cup of coffee near to hand, returned to the control room after checking one last time to make sure everything in the engineering room was to Maria's liking, raised his communicator to his lips, and sent a series of private coms. at the same time, he launched and flew, on rel drive, to Empanda, where he landed and unlocked the main hatch. No more than two minutes later, sen, Brandon, Natalie and Jason west, Daniel and Michelle Quaide, Jason Brooks, and Amena Michaelmann, Feliz's sister, had entered the ship, after which, caiden locked the hatch and launched. Almost immediately, his sensors informed him of a launch from Pax Neutral. His scan of the newly launched vessel informed him that it, a Destroyer, was manned by all of the members of the group he had seen on Pax's docking bay. He waited until the ship jumped out of the sector and utilized the wormhole tracer to see just where they thought they were going.

"Sector 12," he said coldly to nobody in particular, "now what the hell do they want there?"

After a quick series of transmissions over the ship's PA system to make certain everyone in the ship was where they were supposed to be, Maria in the engineering room and the other eight in weapon rooms, he programmed in an FTL jump and subwarped to one unit of Roluxika. Almost immediately, the destroyer subwarped to a landing vector and disappeared from Vindico Atrum's scanners. But something else immediately caught Caiden's attention. A Transverser, caster Hemlock's, launched from the moon's surface and began maneuvering to battle position.

"Watch out!" Caiden called over the Pa, "Transverser! If it looks like they're even thinking about wavewarping, we're getting out of here."

The wavewarp drive, a component built into Transversers, the second available class of AIE specialty starship, along with giving the ship a boost in line of sight Navi-aided travel, had an unlooked for and unpleasant side effect. Any ship in the path of a wavewarping Transverser had a nasty habit of suffering crippling damage or outright destruction. some pilots had utilized wavewarp drives as weapons against Praelor ships, but others had used them as weapons against other human-occupied ships, and in such a situation, the systems that usually governed the successful launching of escape pods were jammed, insuring the deaths of everyone aboard the affected ship if destruction resulted rather than severe damage. This fact had led some pilots to the belief that Alexander Voltrace had somehow managed to duplicate wavewarp energy on a small scale and project it in some form of tight beam at any ship he chose to attack, disrupting the escape systems as he had done to a freighter, a Battle cruiser, two Fighters, and a three-person cruiser years ago and more recently to several ships of varying classes, causing the deaths of a great many enemies of Force. This supposition, however, was far from provable, as Voltrace had remained in hiding until very recently, and once he had reappeared, his Battle Cruiser, Challenger, which had originally been seized by High Guard following his trial, but had vanished shortly thereafter, only to reappear at around the time all the Force trouble had started a year ago, was once again on the "missing" list. Thanks to that, no official or unofficial investigation could be launched into what exactly he had built into the ship to give him that rather deadly ability.

Caiden checked the occupancy scanner and saw that the Tranny, as some pilots called the ships, was manned by the selfsame crew as the destroyer, minus one.

"Lock and load," caiden called over the Pa as he sighted in with the longrange laser.

The cannons and lasers in all eight weapon rooms of Vindico Atrum fired and the Transverser shuddered as it suffered multiple hits, but the weapons in the targeted ship returned fire and Vindico Atrum shuddered in its own turn. Immediately, the sounds of repair drones carrying out repairs to the affected parts of the ship joined the sounds of the engines and weapons. Maria had immediately spotted the damage and had set to work in the engineering room.

The Tranny exchanged fire with the Battle cruiser for a short time, the two ships cutting across the sector and back again like a couple in a lethal dance of flame, but then the Tranny broke off and engaged its Wavewarp drive.

"Hold on!" Caiden shouted into the PA, expecting at any moment to feel the hull of Vindico Atrum buckling under the bombardment of unknown energy that caused the wavewarp phenomenon, but the ship remained whole and suffered no damage. at the same time, the Tranny materialized in orbit around Roluxika and affected a successful landing.

"Now what the hell ...?" caiden began, but a moment later, his flight control scanner informed him as to exactly what the Tranny's sudden breakoff of hostilities had meant. the ship had been a distraction. The unaccounted for person from the destroyer's original crew had carried out the task for which he or she had been brought to Roluxika. The Transverser's presence in sector 12 had been no more than a distraction to keep anyone else from landing on the moon and getting in the way.

"Damn!" Caiden cried, "we failed, epically!"

Aboard Feather, flight control scanners beeped all around. "This is flight control in Rolukksica, transmitting an emergency broadcast! A prisoner by the name of Castor Hemlock has escaped from confinement in the High Guard holding facility with the aid of Janice Kuolena, Jingo Hoezee, Mortimer Webber, James Hemlock, Levi Cohen, and Lauren Jensen. Every able-bodied pilot is commanded by High Guard to shoot or capture any of these individuals on sight."

"_Shit!" Maerlyn cried, "how the fucking hell'd they manage that!? And what the fucking hell is _Kuolena doing!?"

"Looks like we found out just how far we could trust her," Sareela said under her breath._"_

"Captain Azhaani of the ten-person battle cruiser _Justyce,_ Mother Kkhlyyr-a'Tani na-Lhyyreght Trrghlinh is requesting your presence."

"That can't be good," said Sayeh, getting up. "It's a formal summons. Guys, stay here."

They let her go. Her elegant grey cat leapt from the bed and followed her from the room. She still absently held Lily-Marie, who stared around with huge, dark eyes.

"Precious, come back!" Sareela called after the cat.

Kodonera wandered into _Justyce's_ docking bay, scooped up Precious, and brought her back into the expediter. "Guys, what's going on?" she asked. The others took turns filling in events for her.

Kodonera looked out after the diminishing form of Sayeh. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," said Nahia, "but Sayeh is going to break. I can tell."

"And if she breaks, what happens to the Azhaani?" Sareela asked.

"We continue," said Kodonera. "We need Sayeh, but our very existence doesn't depend on her. We need her, but she needs us, too."

"She needs an anchor, Nera," said Sareela. "And we can't find her one. She has to revert."

That had been something the Azhaani had refused to talk about. If she found her race, she could revert, and she would be okay. But ... they would lose her.

Trryhlin met Sayeh and led her silently through the maze of the station to a low-ceilinged, dimly-lit room. Sayeh's head nearly brushed the ceiling, so the only other person who could have gone in with her would have been the diminutive empath, Nahia.

Kkhlyyr was curled up on a slightly-raised platform laid with living mats. The word _rehtaef_ came into Sayeh's mind. But it wasn't a plant they'd gotten from one of their own worlds; they'd adapted it somehow so it would grow in an environment other than its planet of origin, a planet more than half a universe away, a planet called Miria, after which Maerlyn had named his Expediter. Kkhlyyr looked up at Sayeh, and her eyes were too dim and clouded for Sayeh's peace of mind. "Sayeh-ia, why is it you did not tell me that you were in phase?"

"In phase?" Sayeh asked, mystified.

"What is it you say ... Nexus, Nexi. That will suffice. A Nexus in phase is ready to choose a consort. I assume you have none."

"You ... but ... wait."

"This will complicate matters, Sayeh," said Kkhlyyr.

"But what do you mean?" Sayeh asked plaintively.

"You really don't know, do you, child?"

Sayeh had a sudden sinking feeling that she knew what Kkhlyyr might mean. "Can you ... explain? Please?"

"A Nexus is the center of a living network. You have minds on yours; you have added them, your brothers and sisters, and even your close friends. Your consort, or consorts, will be on that network as well. And one day, so will your children."

"But that wasn't my world."

"I know that one of my people once told you that we knew who made you."

"Yes?"

"There is a reason he said that."

"Then I can't have an anchor, it's not possible," Sayeh blurted. She must have been in shock, because the implications of what Kkhlyyr was saying hadn't settled in yet.

"Sayeh," Kkhlyyr said quietly, pitching her "voice" just so that it cut through the barrier in the diminutive woman's mind. "Listen to me."

"But ..."

"Sayeh. Sit down and listen to me."

Sayeh sat down beside Kkhlyyr, curling her legs beneath her, her body as taut as a bowstring.

"What was done is done. No one knew the ramifications would be as bad as they were. No one could have guessed what happened. And when we sent you back, back to the people we knew you belonged with, we certainly thought we were doing the right thing. But perhaps Liani was wrong. Even she is not infallible."

They all had such unshakable faith in Liani that Sayeh found that hard to believe.

"We thought your human blood would spare you from the effects of being a ... Nexus, especially of phase, while leaving the telepathy intact. We should have known that even we can't, what is the human phrase, play God. Now, if you choose a human anchor, it is likely that the energy you put off bonding him could ... have unforeseen, disastrous consequences. I do not believe that any human could handle it, which leaves a possibly unsolvable problem."

Kkhlyyr's words had finally gotten through the barrier of shock in Sayeh's mind, and the full consequences became clear to her. "I'll lose _Justyce,"_ she said. "I'll lose ... my people. Both of my peoples. Kkhlyyr, I'm going to lose ... everything. Oh God." She pressed her hands over her eyes and whispered, "I'm going to die, aren't I?" She couldn't grasp the scope of it yet. "If I lose _Justyce_ over this, everyone will know, and they will shun me ... but, Kkhlyyr, I've never done a single mean thing unless I was pushed to it. Like the Shadowblade shit. They forced me to do what I continue to do, was

"That's where you're wrong, Sayeh," Kkhlyyr said. "You don't have to respond at all. You see, I have often defined my strength as an unconventional kind of strength. To put it in human terms, when the smoke clears, I will still be there, damaged, but alive and healing nonetheless. Humans have done many horrible things to my people, and to me. Yet we continue to prove our strength to every enemy we may have. We will still be quietly here when many others are gone. And we need not destroy anyone to prove it."

Sayeh thought about this for a moment, and said: "You mean I should completely ignore the Shadowblades?"

"No, Sayeh ... but do not respond to their violence with a force you consider great enough to destroy them. That is not why we are all here, is it? That is hucknity's mistake, the mistake of many galactic races and factions thereof."

"The Shadowblades are the least of my problems now, though," Sayeh said.

"You have some time, Sayeh-ia, months, perhaps."

She shook her head. "They'll figure it out. Surely they know already. And they'd never believe me."

Kkhlyyr turned her intense, fathomless eyes fully on Sayeh, each facet focused in the girl's direction. "Are you going to let High Guard, and the unfortunate situation and mind-set of humanity, make your future? Or are you going to make it yourself? You are a Nexus, Sayeh! You are made to be strong and to prevail, to be a source of energy, a wellspring of life. It would be a shame if you gave in this easily, not to mention a waste of effort on the part of an uncountable number of people. Also, my kloremra is in your care, and I am depending on you to protect her mind from the disconnection the enemy will bring."

Kkhlyyr let her words impact Sayeh, and then continued more gently. "We can still manage, even if you are in phase. Ehnorrai says he can filter any contact with you, and Ehnorrai is immune to a Nexus' phases, so if he can do it, we will continue."

"We just end up hiding more and more," Sayeh said. "It can't end well."

"No," said Kkhlyyr, "it can't. ... But perhaps we can do what we need to do before they figure it out, which means you will be in their favor, Sayeh. I don't want you to lose your people, either of them. I don't want you to die, either, or become High Guard's experiment. If it is necessary, we can pull you out. But we need both races to survive, and the Frnalk are intent on seeing us fail."

"And Maria?" Sayeh asked. "Why can't you pull her out?"

"She's a warrior in her heart. She will fight the Frnalk with all the strength she has, though she will kill no one. However, we will remove both her and Caiden if it becomes necessary. I will need her after this birth."

"I know," said Sayeh, understanding. "I figured that because you were pregnant that the rite has not been completed."

"when we met, I was pregnant, but I will change after this birth, and the rite, begun then will be completed."

"If she lives," Sayeh said softly.

"She will live," Kkhlyyr spoke firmly and decisively. "and part of that responsibility is yours."

Sayeh sighed. "I'll be quiet," she said.

"Oh, Sayeh," said Kkhlyyr, and she looked away. "I am so sorry, child ..." Her eyes flickered back to the entrance, where Trryhlin was still quietly waiting. There was almost pain in the emotionless voice when she said, "Trryhlin. Take her back to her ship now." She shifted her bulk slightly, turning away and turning her eyes inward.

Sayeh stood up. Trryhlin beckoned silently and led her from the room.

He looked back at her as they walked through the station's heart. "This is taking more of a toll on Kkhlyyr than she will show."

"I can tell," she said. "I can ..." She made the beginnings of an angular signal absent-mindedly, then looked at her narrow, long-fingered, delicate hands in puzzlement.

"The sense-sign for Nexus," Trryhlin said. "Interesting. You are already listening."

"What do you ..."

"We have a collective subconscious, therefore everyone has access to all memories and thoughts. Humans have it, but we have bridged the gap between conscious and subconscious, and you have not. It is a matter of fine mental control. Perhaps you will learn it one day, but not with the way you let your subconscious run chaotic and undisciplined."

"Which we, they, we? lack," Sayeh said, giving up.

"You will gain access to its techniques, especially with the consummation of your connection," he said.

"How do you know I'll be ... connected?"

"Because you must be. You will choose, because you will have to. It will force you into full phase. You should choose well, he is going to be your anchor, for life. And do not let the lust choose for you, like the weak Ontanka Nexi do."

She shook her head. It was all still too much to take in.

"Trryhlin, what will happen to Kkhlyyr?"

"We will attempt to save her daughter. The rest have less than a thirty per cent chance of survival."

"And Maria?" Sayeh asked. "I know the rite between her and Kkhlyyr wasn't completed, but it must have been completed between her and the males, between her and you. Is Maria all right?"

"For now," he said. "If the rite had been completed, the trouble would be greater. As it is, she will recover."

"Oh Gods," she said. "I'm so sorry about the children."

"You did nothing wrong," said Trryhlin. "You have nothing to appologize for. It is Castor who must pay the debt, and he was, until recently, in High Guard custody. As for the children, there will be more through the kloremra once the rite is complete."

"What will you make him do, or do to him? Castor, I mean."

"We will have to modify the rules according to the circumstances, and Ehnorrai has already sent a message back to Liani. She will give us permission to do so soon."

"On top of this whole Frnalk mess." Sayeh rubbed her tired eyes. "I could sleep for a year."

"There is still much to do before the invasion."

"I know. I won't sleep, as much as I want to."

They reached the docking bay. Sayeh waved to Trryhlin and went into her battle cruiser. It probably wouldn't be hers for much longer, so she would make the best use she could of it for what time she had left as its captain.

She found Nahia standing outside _Feather_ with Lillian, Sareela, Kodonera and Clarissa. Simon, Daren, Maerlyn, Feliz, and Bane were there, too.

"Something's wrong," Bane said automatically. "You don't get that look on your face often."

He may be a total spaz, Sayeh thought, but he knows me. And that bothered her a little more than she liked to admit.

She told them in a toneless voice the summary of her conversation with Kkhlyyr.

There was total silence, and then Sareela ran forward and hugged Sayeh close. The smaller woman could feel moisture in her hair, and she reached up to wipe Sareela's tears away.

"Oh, Sayeh, it's OK," Sareela said, as her other sisters came to hug her too. "Look, you're my sister, no matter what you are." Sareela kissed her cheek. "And we all love you."

Feliz put an arm around Sayeh next.

"I may not be an Azhaani by blood," she said, "but you've got me behind you all the way too."

Maerlyn came wading into the group, reached over everyone's heads and gave them all a hug. Laughter broke out because he was so much taller than everyone else that he sent them off-balance. He smiled for a moment and then aided everyone in keeping their feet before gently kissing Sayeh's cheek.

"Thanks, guys," Sayeh said, her vision blurring with tears.

They stood up and dusted themselves off. "Now off to Outpost 58 we go," said Sayeh.

"Why?" someone asked indignantly.

"They're going to need a hell of a lot of extra materials," Sayeh replied, "ISC is probably going into a mad overload. What else can we do but work?"

"And even if the other elements in the asteroids don't help anyone in this situation," Maerlyn said, "we'll definitely need cardenium and bard. hell with gold and stuff right now."

Everyone, with the exception of Maerlyn and Feliz, who entered in silence, activating their forcefield spacesuits (Maerlyn's generator resembling a dimbly glowing azure sphere and Feliz's resembling a small gold necklace with a single diamond set into it) and checking their asteroid hauling kits to make sure they had a full stock of equipment, went into the expediter grumbling about there not even being excitement in war. They hadn't seen shit yet, Sayeh thought. She should get Trryhlin to tell them stories; then they'd want the safety of the boring routine of their lives back. And she could imagine that he had stories that would impress hardened veteran pilots, if there was ever a time when there was no war, no Frnalk, no Ontanka, nothing threatening their lives.

Or perhaps, she thought with a shudder as the nightmare vision from the conference room recurred to her mind, Maria should tell them stories. On second thought, she doubted that Maria would ever talk about that mindless screaming horror, and Sayeh couldn't blame her.

There had been nothing but war for more than three decades (the Alexander Voltrace affair coming near the beginning of this latest string of conflicts,) and neither side had gained ground until the Sector 15 invasion of 2355, when the Ontanka had destroyed Miriani. Yet they had still been driven back. And humans had never advanced far into Praelor space, for the Praelor empire was vast compared to the small amount of space humans clung to so desperately. The CTN empire had been huge as well, but it had been almost completely wiped out by the static and the Praelor had moved in on its remnants and were still establishing territories that the rogue former human alliance had once held. Other races had spread their influence to the chaotic, isolated worlds the CTN had left behind, and the galaxy was in a state of upheaval due to the sudden rise and fall of human empires in the midst of tens, perhaps hundreds, of races whose relations with one another were already fragile or unstable, if not completely deteriorated.

The group landed and changed ships, returning to Sayeh's Battle cruiser and launching, beginning the journey out of the charted sectors toward the remote outposts, Maerlyn keeping an eye on longrange scans just in case someone (Caster Hemlock sprang immediately to mind) decided to follow them out and start shooting, probably with an Intercepter in the sector equipped with interdicters to make certain the target ship didn't escape.

When the Battle Cruiser landed on Remote Outpost 58, everyone, with only a couple exceptions, exited the ship and entered various 2-person Asteroid Haulers. Maerlyn entered Tilianum together with lillian and launched (Feliz was currently hauling together with her sister in law Sonya in her own ship, Holly,) immediately beginning the complicated manual navigation sequence that would, hopefully, finish them up near an asteroid. Other Roiders were also flying, each in different directions. It wasn't about the credits now, although most of the time cash was the main objective of hauling. now it was about survival.

Hours later Malcum Hamilton, a longtime close friend of Sayeh's, found her on her battle cruiser where it was landed at 58, pacing in the control room, since Sareela and Kodonera were hauling in _Sky_ _Diamond,_ her asteroid hauler. He noted an odd sort of glow to her eyes, a light that was almost as if she'd captured a star in her gaze and the glow of it was going to spill out across her skin.

"I was wondering where you'd gotten to." She sat down suddenly, for a moment looking intently at him with her head cocked like a little bird. "I needed to tell you ..." she began, and she filled him in.

"Whoa," Malcum said, and sat down beside her. "That's ..." He spread his hands. "Completely ridiculous. No, no, I don't mean you, I mean ..." He shook his head. "Well damn."

She sighed. "But what she told me means that ... I'm going to die."

"You don't know that you can't have a human anchor," he said.

"Erm," she said, attempting to stop a thought before it blossomed into traumatizing imagery, "I can't have ... _any_ anchor."

"Oh God," he said. She shot him a look. He cracked up. "What, I couldn't help it." And then he sighed. "But seriously, Sayeh. It might sound odd, but I know more than a few people who wouldn't find it hard to imagine being your anchor."

"Oh, God," she said. "As long as you don't start naming people, we might be fine."

He laughed. "Most of them aren't too scary."

"Coming from you, that means a good sixty percent of them are."

"Oh, hey, come on now!" he said. "That's not fair." And both of them laughed.

"Sayeh," he said seriously but gently, "_I_ could be your anchor. I will take that risk for you."

"But I can't ... I'll condemn you." Her eyes stung. "As it is, once everyone knows, no Azhaani will ever walk free again. And if they do, someone like Matt Valentino or Parias Atriedes will order them shot on sight. I've condemned my entire family, I can't, _won't,_ do that to anyone else. If I live, my conscience will be my burden forever."

"Sayeh," he said, and he reached out and took her face in his hands. "Listen to me."

But suddenly her eyes flared with light and the glow spilled out across her skin, down her face and neck, across her shoulders and further downward, until you could almost believe that she really was glowing. Something passed from her to Malcum, a wave of something that wrapped itself around him like living light, sweeping through his body and then retreating like ocean waves. He stared at her, eyes wide, trying to catch his breath. Slowly, reluctantly, he let her face go, and the energy that flowed through him dissipated.

"My God," he breathed.

"I don't even know everything about it." She shook her head. "I'll have to ask Kkhlyyr about it."

Malcum noticed that the glow hadn't completely faded; her skin almost seemed to shine, bringing out suggestions and hints of colors in it that he'd never noticed. And her skin was so soft, perfectly smooth, like silk under his hands. He almost reached out without thinking, just to touch her again. Clearly the, whatever it was, the _energy, that_ she'd sent surging through him hadn't faded.

"You should do that," he said, his voice still a little rough. "That was ..." There was no word for what that was. _Intense_ didn't quite cover it somehow. Sayeh wondered whether it, she, would respond that way to anyone, so that she was forced to try and choose, or just to some people. Earlier, when everyone was having an emotion fest, this electric reaction didn't happen. Maybe whatever influence being around Kkhlyyr had on her took time to settle in.

Sayeh stood up. "I have to be doing something. I'm so restless. I'm not used to being ..." She spread her hands in a gesture of helplessness.

"Stuck," Malcum said quietly, "between a rock and a hard place."

"Exactly."

The blast door whooshed aside to admit Morpheus Azhaani, flushed and out of breath with his hair on end. "Sayeh, come here," he said.

"What is it?" Sayeh inquired.

"Just come with me. Hurry! I'll take _Ulekkin,_ you take _Winter_ _Storm._ Bzzr in 15. Didn't you have your flight control scanners turned on?"

"Oh shit," said Malcum, and stood up. "Let's just use the bC so I can get my fighter too. And Morphius, it'd be a bit more logical to dock whatever fighter you're going to take in this ship rather than trying to fly it back to 31. Fighters don't have FTL drives, so you'd arrive in 15 at about the time everyone was landing after getting rid of the invading ships."

"Wait for the asteroid haulers to dock!" said Sayeh.

"There's no need. Everyone's landed, just open up and let them in," said Morpheus.

Glancing out quickly to see who was on the docking bay, Sayeh unlocked the hatch and called over the loudspeaker, "Enter." She turned to Morpheus. "Why random Bzzr's? Why not a Potate, a few Onzes and Onati, a few Ontanka and possibly a Muzati? 15's a rather important sector. This isn't right. like Maerlyn pointed out, there's an asteroid mining station there as well as Empanda. you'd think they'd hit it harder than this."

"Apparently they've decided to have a fight, over space that's been colonized for decades, that isn't even theirs. Looks like we're going to have more than a few factions fighting each other and us," Morphius said.

"_Dammit!" Maerlyn exclaimed as he entered the ship, "have the Ontanka gone insane or something?"_

_"What if these aren't Ontanka?" feliz asked, "what if they're Frnalk ships?"_  
_ "The Frnalk would probably send something bigger than a swarm of bzzr's to attack 15," Maerlyn said, "it's a logical target and they'd hit it as hard as they possibly could. This doesn't fit any type of logical pattern. Something's not right."_

Everyone was in, so Sayeh sat down, buckled, and began launch procedures. "Hold on to your butts!" she called over the PA, and initiated the jump back to 15.

"Flight control in Angelus, 60 Praelor starships inbound!"

"Flight control in Varoshna, fifty Praelor starships inbound!"

"Flight control in Casus, Oh shit, they're _here_ ...!" And the flight control operator's voice was cut off by a loud scream, which ended abruptly.

"They attacked flight control!" Malcum said as the jump completed and the curious distortion of subwarp took them across the sector toward Empanda Station, Bzzr's scattering like tiny fish in the wake of a great ship.

"Which means they're going to hit the station. And we get to listen to them die," said Sayeh. Her blood ran cold. She shivered, and it had nothing to do with the temperature of the room.

"The same thing happened last year when they invaded Sector 26," Maerlyn said, "but a couple FC operators survived and were able to keep those of us who weren't in the first response wave abreast of events. But this time ..."

The ship had touched down on the public docking bay by this point, and people were piling out, turrets drawn out of long habit. Ships were expelled from Justyce's docking bay, each one resembling a metallic bird whose wings were folded. When the little ships were put on red alert status, however, the wings spread, revealing two laser turrets at each wing's tip. Everyone was getting in fighters, weather said fighter had been expelled from another ship or hauled to the docking bay. There appeared to be at least fifty of the tiny bird-like craft. . Sayeh went into _Winter_ _Storm,_ the interior and exterior of which were all silver and black, harsh planes and angles with nothing to soften it. There was a single piece of furniture, a black captain's chair standing before the cramped consoles whose lights flickered off the silver-and-black interior. She felt the gentle bump of the little ship being lifted and set in Empanda's docking bay, and then the pressure of liftoff.

The fighters flew in a tight formation their pilots had practiced for situations somewhat like this, but most times said situations consisted of what they called "Bzzr missions." The formation in question allowed the fighters to keep close together and prevent themselves from being boxed in and swarmed by the Bzzr's, the ships usually remaining a unit apart, whilst allowing for a field of fire that would keep the numbers of swarming young Praelor starships down.

As soon as Sayeh was in the air, the general sector communications channel exploded with sound.

"Look, are you people out of your minds ...?"

"We can't just ..."

"First the fiasco on Pax, now this ..."

"They're trying to help us, you worthless fuck ..."

"Watch that one, it's ...!"

An explosion as a starship was destroyed.

"Watch your fucking lock you asshole ...!"

"I'm gonna strand your ...!"

"I have a stun gun with your name on it ..."

And someone's gentle, plaintive voice: "Can't that wait for another time?"

The computer interjected, "Praelor Onati 1489 has jumped into the sector." Sayeh scanned it, realized it was Krenelia, and then took another look at the Bzzr's. Some of them were the Praelor they were used to fighting, but a lot more were little Krenelia ships. One floated nearby, its components nearly completely gone. It was beginning to repair its hull damage. Suddenly a voice in Sayeh's ear said, "Momentarily switching to human communications frequencies." Sayeh jumped and reached up, feeling the implant behind her ear and suddenly realizing that it must have many purposes besides controlling the micro-organisms regulating the PH of her blood.

General sector exploded again with noise, the little blinded one floating above _Winter_ _Storm_ was sending out some sort of distress sound, for instance, and Sayeh wished she hadn't heard it. That high, hissing whistle of pain and anguish was imprinted in her mind forever, and would haunt her dreams with eerie echoes. Then a low frequency emanated from the Onati floating at the edge of the sector, and though Sayeh was the only human, or semi-human, who could hear it, everyone else could feel it.

"What in the ...?"

Sayeh held down the tab for general sector next to the microphone on the communications console beside her. "They've switched the band to our communication frequency for a minute," she said.

On her ship's scanners, she saw _Lucianum_ break formation and head for the dying Krenelia Bzzr. Before it could be hit again, _Lucianum's_ lasers fired at the Ontanka ships surrounding it, causing them to break off their attack.

Maerlyn saw the crippled Krenelia Bzzr, saw the Ontanka ships about to surround it and finish it off, and came to a snap decision. Since they were fighting the Ontanka ships anyway, why not show them that just because the Krenelia were here too, it was no reason to utilize what was clearly swarm strategy to pick off the young, although what the Ontanka were doing sending Bzzr's into 15 was beyond him. Come to that, it was totally beyond him why the Krenelia had sent Bzzr's of their own into 15 in response to the ontanka activity in the sector. They were young Praelor starships, not even mature, and certainly not battle-ready, apart from an occasional encounter with the odd fighter. Their strong point was swarming a target, but they'd usually run from anything larger, even an asteroid hauler had been known to scare them off. And what the hell were the Ontanka doing here?

He entered a new course into the ship's manual controls and Lucianum streaked, almost vertically, toward the endangered Krenelia ship. He focused on the nearest Ontanka Bzzr, locked weapons, and fired, causing the enemy ship to break off its attempt on the young Krenelia ship's life. A moment later _Lucianum's_ computer announced, "Praelor Bzzr 32685 has a lock on this starship." Several more weapon locks followed, and Lucianum shuddered violently as Praelor acid impacted with the hull.

Maerlyn disabled weapon lock notifications, as they only got in the way, and fired again. The Ontanka Bzzr exploded, showering organic material over a rather wide area. He then turned his attention to the next one, focused, locked, and prepared to fire. But a reading on his sensors got his attention for a moment, causing him to lose the Praelor ship.

Ryok Shadowblade's gunship, a ship he knew well, had launched from Empanda.

"What the fuck's he doing?" Maerlyn thought as he began keying commands into the ship's damage control board, attempting to keep the little ship going as long as possible. "He knows goddamn well that these things run from anything that fucking big."

He decided that if Ryok wanted to be stupid and try taking on Ontanka Bzzr's in a gunship, that was his own lookout, and once again focused his attention on saving the young Krenelia starship's life. He fired on the Ontanka Bzzr, causing critical damage. The Ontanka exploded, as had its swarmmate before it, and then the way was clear for the Krenelia Bzzr to attempt a landing on Empanda Station.

Once again, General sector seemed to explode with traffic.

"What the fuck's Ryok doing ...?"

"He knows goddamn well ..."

"Get that fucking gunship out of here, you useless fuckwit!"

"I swear to fucking God I'll stun you for the next fucking year ..."

And someone, with dry sarcasm: "If you live long enough, you mean."

Maerlyn keyed his own general sector transmitter open, keying his communicater to short range at the same time and said, "Ryok, are you some kind of idiot?"

"Are there different kinds now?" Caiden Shadowblade's voice over short range.

Maerlyn looked for him and picked out his own cruiser, _Revenge._ He had no occupancy scanner in _Lucianum,_ but he knew that Caiden was probably in it, occupying the weapon room, that Sen was probably flying, and that Maria was probably enging.

"Actually yes," Maria's voice over short-range, "there's the usual kind, then there's the Ryok variety, and the Alexander Voltrace variety, and the Muzati variety ..."

Caiden: "I get the point, darling."

Maerlyn turned his attention back to the Bzzr's and saw that their numbers were, if anything, increasing. He fought his way back to Empanda, needing to land for repairs. If he didn't soon, _Lucianum_ would be destroyed.

The noise in Sayeh's mind was mercifully cut off and for a moment everyone floated, silent and unmoving. It was an eternally suspended half-second. And then the battle returned in full force, a full swarm of Ontanka Bzzr's descending on _Winter_ _Storm._ _Ulekkin_ battled its way through on one side and _Lucianum_ on the other. They wove in and out of the swarms of tiny ships in a deadly dance of fire and ice.

Maerlyn looked for Feliz as he fought his way back toward Empanda and spotted her fighter, Mojo, locked in combat with two Bzzr's. She navigated the fighter like she'd been born to fly, causing the little ship to do things only a few other people had ever managed. As Maerlyn watched, Mojo went into a spin that looked uncontrolled but wasn't, and the two Bzzr's exploded simultaneously.

_Winter_ _Storm_ landed for repairs, _Lucianum_ right beside it, Mojo landing a moment later. Sayeh stepped from the dimness of the control room into the airlock, peered out, saw _Heart_ _of_ _Gold_ on the docking bay, and cursed. She went over short-range: "Castor Hemlock has his transverser powered up on Empanda." He must have cheated to keep that thing. Probably bribed and bullied a few AIE officials. No wonder even Alliance governments hate him.

"Well," Matt Valentino said over short-range, "it's a good thing some of us have interdictors in our fighters."

"You have interdictors in your fighter. I should have known," Sayeh returned, "but why am I even the slightest bit surprised? You were never the variety to salvage debris after either a solo mission or a duel, unless you wanted a little something to remember said duel by."

"Why would you want to interdict the sector with all this going on anyway?" Maerlyn asked over short range, "if something went wrong with someone's ship, they'd not be able to leave the sector any more than that Tranny would."

_Heart_ _of_ _Gold_ streaked into the sky. Maerlyn commed Sayeh: "Let's get _Praelor_ _Nightmare._ We can't let Castor make things worse and we can't take on a tranny in fighters. He'd just wavewarp over us, killing us in the process. It's doubtful he's here to help anyone but himself anyway."

"I don't think we need to. They didn't have clearance to launch. Watch," Sayeh replied.

The three fighters launched and watched bright beams of light cut through space. An unfortunate Ontanka Bzzr, set on its course, was split in neat halves before the beam hit _Heart_ _of_ _Gold,_ a spot of red fire blossoming where part of the transverser's hull had been melted to slag, at which point, Castor apparently decided that staying on the ground had its advantages, and landed _Heart_ _of_ _Gold._

"What the fucking hell!?" Maerlyn's voice over general sector. He had never seen planetary defense lasers fire on a ship attempting to launch before. None of them had, but then again, most times ships weren't automatically denied launch clearance, not that Castor's transverser had been the original target.

It was so odd, Sayeh thought, watching two pieces of a ship spin off into space, seeing one bloom into incandescent fire from the explosion of its drive, the other half drifting out into nothingness. Sayeh had never seen a ship literally cut in half before. Any human ship would have exploded. The remaining piece of Praelor ship did not. A delicate halo of ice bloomed around it, and realizing what it was, Sayeh steered clear of it.

"Don't salvage that you idiot ..." Sen shadowblade yelling at Ryok over general sector and short range coms.

"Let him, he's stupid anyway ..." Caiden.

"What do you think that stuff would do ...?" Maerlyn.

"I don't think we want to know ..." Maria.

"Do you think he'd blow up if he salvaged that ..." Matt.

"Get out of here with that fucking Gunship ..." Maria.

"Have you decided to increase your asshole quotient today or something ...?" Feliz.

Despite its deceptively harmless appearance, it was acid strong enough to burn through layers of metal if something remelted it, something like drive energies passing through it. Everything was usually cut into small enough pieces that this danger would have been vaporized, but a planet's or station's lasers were so powerful and accurate that they destroyed with eerie precision.

There were too many Bzzr's. Most of the human ships were boxed in, _Winter_ _Storm,_ _Ulekkin, Mojo, _ and _Lucianum_ had been separated, and it seemed like they wouldn't make it.

And then the capital planets reported Frnalk starships inbound to the capital sectors, which meant the Bzzr's here were a diversion, so that when or if the escape pods grabbed them before the explosion killed them, all the pilots in 15 would be stuck possibly with them on the ground. When Cianan pointed that out, Maerlyn pointed out the ITPN stations. They could take pods from any capital world to Pax and from there to Empanda, where six BC's were currently landed, _Justyce,_ Basilisk, Venom, Zeus's Anguish, Dauntless and Demonic Terror. Maerlyn's BC, _Sapphire_ _and_ _Steel,_ was currently on Rolu in Sector 12, and at this point, inaccessible to them, as was Cianan's BC, Light Of Fire, which was currently landed on Io.

Maerlyn attempted to hold his own against the swarm of Bzzr's, but there were too many, far too many. He fired again and again, attempting to keep up with the ever-increasing damage at the same time, thus keeping _Lucianum_ in working order. First turret 1 went critical, then turret 3. Turrets 2 and 4 continued to function, but just barely. He attempted to slip east, but the slip drive was damaged beyond repair. His remaining two turrets went next, and his sensors were at 95 percent. He attempted to make his way to Empanda, but an all too familiar gunship suddenly subwarped to within one unit of the crippled fighter. Maerlyn attempted to move out of the gunship's range, but the damn Ontanka Bzzr's had him boxed in. No matter which way he tried to move, it was as if someone had launched blockades, but these weren't blockades. They were ships, organic extensions of the Praelor themselves, or so all research had shown.

"You suck ballsatron," Ryok Shadowblade's voice said over general sector.

"Fucking Ryok," Maerlyn thought in disgust a moment before a bardenium salvo impacted with _Lucianum's_ hull, causing it to go critical. As the klaxon that signaled the imminent destruction of the ship began to sound in his ears, Maerlyn keyed open his general sector transmitter.

"Going down!" Maerlyn called over general sector, just before his explosion lit up the night sky and the computer aboard _Winter_ _Storm_ reported: "The one-person fighter _Lucianum_ has been destroyed."

An escape pod launched from _Lucianum,_ just ahead of the explosion, and Sayeh hoped that Maerlyn's injuries weren't too bad. With no carrier landed on Outreach and no way to get to his battle cruiser, he'd have to pod back to 15 and hope he could heal himself in the med bay of his carrier, which was stored in Sayeh's garage, but only if he wasn't too badly injured to move. But Sayeh was thanking God she'd seen a pod launch at all, especially after the times she'd seen a starship destroyed and no escape pod. She'd seen that too many times over the last year, and the obvious suspect in all situations was Alexander Voltrace, who had managed, somehow, to byepass the escape systems of at least five ships a number of years ago, and who had, more recently, done it to over a dozen, resulting in the deaths of all members of the Kristos family, apart from Maria, who had been, at that time, spending most of her time in Vindico Atrum under Caiden Shadowblade's protection, and Maerlyn, who had managed to either stay hidden or stay one step ahead of anyone who tried to blow him out of space, at least until he'd passed the BC test and bought Sapphire And Steel. Then he'd taken the fight, together with the rest of the Azhaani family, to Matt Valentino and Force, nearly capturing Alexander Voltrace at one point, and making Force think twice before attempting to take over the human occupied sectors and declare themselves Government In Waiting.

As Maerlyn's ship exploded, _Revenge_ maneuvered into a position a unit away from Ryok's gunship. The bardenium cannons of the cruiser fired and the gunship shuddered. _Revenge_ flipped almost completely over, avoiding two Ontanka Bzzr's that had zeroed in on it, fired at the gunship again, slipped to the other end of the sector, and allowed the Praelor ships to fire on the gunship. Ryok apparently saw the danger too late and was boxed by the Bzzr's, which had, it seemed, not figured out yet that the ship they were currently shooting at wasn't the one they'd been chasing a moment before (Bzzr's aren't known for their stunning intelligence). _Revenge_ flew on rel back toward the gunship and its weapons, both cannons and lasers fired at almost the same moment, scored multiple hits. Suddenly Bzzr's arrowed in toward _Revenge_ like bright motes, weapons locked. And suddenly there were more Bzzr's, but they weren't Ontanka. They flew increasingly narrow spirals, cut off and dove in two arrow formations through the swarm attacking _Revenge,_ arrowed off in either direction (letting the Ontanka chase them), and then looped almost gracefully back inward. The Ontanka had no way back toward the cruiser. Instead, they were caught between the Krenelia Bzzr's and a swarm of fighters with Mojo in the lead and were quickly destroyed. Then the cruiser angled away to avoid any possible return fire. But that, as it turned out, was unnecessary. The gunship's hull went critical (and this time, oddly, it had been surrounded by Krenelia), and another explosion lit up the blackness of space. The escape pod carrying Ryok rocketed away from the fiery remains of the ship it had launched from and initiated a wormhole jump.

"Who sucks ballsatron now?" Caiden asked over short range.

_Revenge_ then resumed its attack on the Ontanka ships, giving the remaining fighters a bit of a breather.

"Shit!" said Sayeh. She was well and truly boxed; the little bugs just kept pouring into the sector, and what the hell was Ryok Shadowblade's gunship doing up there? Then Sayeh saw another ship, Maerlyn's cruiser, Revenge. She saw the cruiser move into attack position and fire on Ryok's ship, saw it do an almost complete flip, fire on a couple Ontanka ships, slip across the sector, and then come powering back, firing a synchronized laser and cannon salvo, something only Caiden Shadowblade knew how to do perfectly (although he was instructing Maerlyn in that rather deadly art as well,) saw the Ontanka close in and the Krenelia's tactics, and saw the gunship explode.

And then something dropped into the sector. Sayeh scanned it: "Praelor Resati Lyyrrh Jrriya: Krenelia," the computer said.

She slammed a hand down on to a nearby console. "Ehnorrai, dammit, what are you doing?" she muttered furiously. But she couldn't go see, her hull was at 70 and the Bzzr's were ...

Gone! They'd all swept back into a veritable wall of little ships at the end of the sector, making more room for that ship than they'd make even for a battle cruiser.

She checked her damages, and ran for Empanda. A turret was gone, another was at 90, another was in the 70's, the fourth was in the 50's, and her sensors were over half gone. There were so many Bzzr's in the air that you had a lot of trouble wading through them, let alone fighting them. She landed, bought repairs, and launched as fast as she could.

"What the fuck is that?" Matt Valentino was demanding over general sector. But the Bzzr's were closing in again, because the ship had retreated to a corner of the sector.

"Shit!" said Malcum. "That's the ship that brought in the Praelor jumpgate. What's one of them doing here?"

"It's a Krenelia ship," said Teresa calmly.

"It's quite obvious what it's doing here," Jason Harkness said.

"I think you're jumping to conclusions," said Cianan Azhaani.

"Kid, shut up," said Matt.

"It's a fucking Krenelia ship!" Teresa reiterated, twice the volume.

"Oi! Don't stand on the volume control!" Morpheus said.

"Quit clipping my goddamned headset," Sayeh said.

The Onati at the edge of the sector swooped through the swarm of Bzzr's and back, scattering them to the virtual winds, and said, "This is Trryhlin. Calm down. Ehnorrai is not going to make a jumpgate here, not only is there no anchor in space strong enough for one, but we have no reason to."

"Then what the fuck is it doing here?"

"This," the Resati broadcasted. Then over her implant: "We had to show them. But this is only a fraction of what I can do." Then over general sector: "In three seconds, try moving, in any fashion."

Sayeh started to move across the sector-and realized that it was taking twice as long.

"Something's disrupting our drives!" Teresa said.

"What are you trying to do? Prove that you can kill us?" Matt asked, still distrustful.

"No," the Resati broadcasted.

"It's a temporal disturbance!" Rothque said, awed. Sayeh noticed that everyone's voices were strange and slow, that every one of her movements, though not weak and sluggish, were in slow motion.

Then it lifted. Sayeh breathed a sigh of relief. Having her movement limited by the speed at which the cycle of Time was moving wasn't something she'd thought of.

But what if he speeded it up? Would their brains work only at their normal speed, or would that change? And was a temporal disturbance only sector-wide, or ... She couldn't wrap her brain around the concept that one ship could cause something much bigger. And what was Ehnorrai doing, playing with time?

Quietly, without fanfare, Ehnorrai's ship left the sector, the blue mouth of the wormhole opening for it, wrapping around it, closing over it and swallowing it, then vanishing completely. There was no sign of Ehnorrai, no trace of Lyyrrh Jrriya's drive energies now.

As the pod's force field seized Maerlyn, he felt lancing agony as his left arm was broken. he also felt pain in his head as it impacted with the wall of the escape pod he'd been deposited into. He wondered what would be waiting for him on Outreach and then figured he already knew. Ground Praelor, and not the ground representatives of the Ontanka faction either. what was it the Krenelia had said at the conference before Castor had decided to come bursting in and popping off Praelor lethal rounds? "Worse than the Ontanka," but what could possibly be worse than the Ontanka, unless it was the Static, the race responsible for the black hole in Sector 24 that had destroyed High Guard Command two years ago? He decided to take the Krenelia's word for it. He knew next to nothing about this new Praelor faction, only having encountered them once before, and what little he knew wasn't much to go on. Very few people knew much about them (they were frighteningly mysterious, a deadly unknown quantity in the universe), and here he was about to drop right into their laps.

After grabbing the salvage container that was in the pod with him and putting it, one-handed, into his backpack, he drew the stun turret from his third holster, the one reserved for Praelor-lethal ammunition, thanking God that his shooting hand wasn't attached to the arm that was currently singing "Oh say can you seeeeeeeeee, that a Praelor just diiiiiiiiiiiiied!" But loading a Praelor lethal mag would be a bit of a problem. He turned his head to the right as the pod's wormhole drive engaged and took one of the straps of the messenger bag he wore in his mouth, accessed his ammunition storage container with his left hand, biting down on the strap as pain rocketed up his arm to his shoulder, balanced the turret against his right shoulder, removed a Praelor lethal mag, slammed it into the turret, and relaxed his jaws.

He kept his nearly useless left hand near his second holster, which contained a hollow cylindrical device, one of the odd alien weapons you sometimes picked up trying your hand in archeology. In a pinch, he could still draw if a human target presented itself, and if Ryok hadn't been smart, which he usually wasn't, he'd probably finish up podded to Outreach right along with him. It was a situation he didn't really care for very much. Psychotic mutant ground Praelor on one side, Ryok Shadowblade and whoever else had been in his ship on the other.

The pod landed on Outreach's landing pad and sanitation drones clustered around it immediately, carrying it away, but Maerlyn had no time to watch this, as fifteen insectoid creatures converged on him. These, however, were like no Ontanka Maerlyn had ever seen before. Their height was greater for one thing, and for another, their exoskeletons were what appeared to be a dead, patchy red-and-black rather than the flashy (and often hideously clashing) multicolored exoskeletons of the Ontanka ("Hadn't anyone heard of color-coordinated shell-paint?" Sayeh might have said). Also, these creatures possessed claws capable of tearing a man apart with ease, similar to what velociraptor claws had looked like, with one long, arched one designed for ripping in and pulling insides out and the rest for dissecting the bits. Maerlyn had seen such creatures before, long ago on Aquili, when he'd been only a child. These were the things that had killed every other man, woman, and child on the planet, and whose warped telepathic emissions had wiped out the first eight years of his life from his memory, until the Krenelia had recently restored them to him during Sayeh's first trip to Krenelia space. Maerlyn aimed his turret at the nearest creature and prepared to fire, when a second escape pod landed and Ryok Shadowblade emerged from it, favoring his right leg.

"I wonder who blew you out of space," Maerlyn thought.

Ryok aimed his turret at Maerlyn and fired, but instead of the usual electric blue bolt of stun energy, the turret discharged a large cloud of matter, usually intended to impact with Praelor exoskeletons. Maerlyn dodged anyway, took cover behind a cargo hauler, crouched low, holstered his turret and drew his hollow. He quickly checked the power level and ammo, aimed at Ryok from behind cover and fired. The bolt hit Ryok in the groin. A moment later, Maerlyn had holstered the hollow and drawn his pulse emitter and made short work of Ryok's droids, whilst at the same time he said, "Xena, shoot Ryok." There was no real reason for him to do this, as xena and Rani weren't as restricted by in-built programming as were most droids, but he did it out of long force of habit.

Xena, Maerlyn's security droid, who was dressed as if she was about to go out for a casual evening, aimed her stun turret attachment at Ryok and fired. This bolt struck Ryok in the face.

Maerlyn broke cover, drawing his turret and firing at the nearest ground Praelor. The shot blew a hole in the creature's side and a greenish ichor began bubbling from the wound. The Praelor screamed in pain and spat acid at him, but Rani, his medical droid, leapt in front of him and took the full force of the Praelor's attack. She slumped over, her systems temporarily powered down, a smoking scorch mark on her smooth exterior.

"Xena, shoot Ryok," Maerlyn commanded again and the droid obeyed, firing another bolt of stun energy which impacted with Ryok's chest.

Before he could tell Xena to shoot Ryok again, however, a ground Praelor crouched in preparation for an attack. Xena leapt in front of Maerlyn, powering down as the acid struck her.

"Fuck!" Maerlyn cried and shot the Praelor.

Rani powered back up and Maerlyn said, "Rani diagnose Ryok."

"Ryok Shadowblade has 5 minutes and 34 seconds of stun time," Rani replied.

Maerlyn shot the Praelor again, and then again, dodging the acid streams that issued from their mouths, kicking one as it got too close (and swearing in pain; kicking these things was like kicking metal), crouched behind the cargo hauler again (the poor little ship was now streaked with scorch marks), and fired another round at the Praelor. This time the creature slumped over, dying.

Xena powered back up and Maerlyn ordered both droids to follow him. Ryok's droids were also powered up again, but without him to tell them what to do, they were next to useless, unlike Xena and Rani, whom Maerlyn had partially freed from Lucko Robotics's restrictive programming.

He turned to aim at the next Praelor and saw that, just like in the space around Empanda, there were far too many of them for him to successfully make a fight of it. He broke cover, firing a parting shot at one of the Praelor blocking his path, and made for the ITPN transport station just as the corpse behind him gave a tremendous shudder and exploded. A wing and one of its mandibles struck Ryok's stunned, helpless body.

But before he'd gone more than a couple steps, he noticed that Ryok was beginning to move. Apparently one of his droids had succeeded in healing his stun time and now he was aiming his turret at Maerlyn.

"Forget something?" Maerlyn inquired as the shot, like the previous one, dissolved into a puff of dust and floated away, "why aren't you using those on the Praelor?"

Before Ryok could answer, six Praelor, who had surrounded him, discharged their acid at him. His skin began to bubble immediately and his clothing dissolved on his body, some of it actually melting into the flesh. He hadn't been wearing armor, a huge mistake in this situation, and thanks to the debilitating effects of Praelor acid, he was now powerless to put any on. His screams echoed throughout the space port as his skin and flesh beneath it fried in the continuous shower of Praelor acid impacting with his body, most of which looked more like something you'd expect to see in a pot of boiling water than a human being.

Then one of the creatures reached him and grasped him with its claws. A moment later, the thing had torn a huge hole in Ryok's side, ripping out a large chunk of flesh. Blood fountained up, nearly reaching the domed roof of the spaceport. The other creatures reached Ryok a moment later and began tearing him to pieces, still alive and screaming. Two pinned him down, and Maerlyn saw those big arched claws put to use as they literally ripped the flesh in layers back from Ryok's bones. They lowered their heads and Maerlyn, hearing a distinct crunching, decided finally that it was time to haul ass.

"Fuck this happy horse shit," Maerlyn thought as he entered the ITPN station, paid for a ticket to Empanda, and waited for the pod to arrive, all the while hoping that the Praelor on the landing pad would be too distracted with Ryok to worry about anyone who may have been trying to pod off the planet.

Ryok's screams had been mercifully cut off by the time the pod arrived and Maerlyn boarded it. He fancied he could still hear them after the pod had launched, although he knew that was impossible.

When the pod landed on Pax, he quickly paid for a ticket to Empanda. The second pod seemed to take forever, but there were no ground Praelor on Pax, so the wait was a bit less tense. When the second pod landed on Empanda station, Maerlyn ran at top speed for the apartment lobby. He entered Sayeh's apartment and ran for the garage. He entered his carrier, _Counterforce,_ and made for the medical bay. He lay down on one of the beds and medical drones began healing his injuries, all the while beeping adjitatedly at his not quite human physiology. Less than a minute later, the drones returned to their nitches in the walls and Maerlyn stood up.

He exited the med bay, entered the docking bay, and made his way up to the control room. He powered up and transported the ship to the public docking bay, peered out, and raised his communicator.

"Anyone needs healing, let me know," he said.


	3. Chapter 3: Building Discord

Even now, though my old memories are still "new memories" I can remember Nhakk-Aryyti, the high, dry cratered surface of the planet where the wind blew relentlessly and the sand moved like tides and the sun was a big, hot dusty eye glaring down with furious rays on anyone who dared step on to its domain, the surface. It stands out clear in my mind, its rough hills and sharp mountains, its precarious ledges, cracked obsidian cliffs and gorges like wounds in the land, its baked black clay deserts and old seabeds filled with pinnacles and holes, their granite walls dropping away on to echoing fissures. There were few semi-temperate places on Nhakk-Aryyti. Perhaps if you went into the high mountains and found a valley walled in by steep dark peaks like needles of black glass, you would be sheltered from the eternal blowing of wind and sand, high enough that the heat of the sun wouldn't burn your skin off.

Little lives on the surface, but under it is another matter. It teems with life, is rich with metals and stones that none have ever needed to mine, and contains an unbelievable variety of creatures and forms of life many believed impossible before. If you mined Nhakk-Aryyti, its diamonds would far surpass any of Earth's, its metals would seem inexhaustible and their quality finer than anything the known universe has to offer, and its many gems and crystals would be the finest in the galaxy. Nhakk-Aryyti could have made the Krenelia one of the most powerful and influential groups in the galaxy. Over time, a few have seen the riches the ancient world holds. Its caverns are of living crystal, which the Elianahi understand. The Elianahi can touch the crystal and know when it will grow, what it will produce, how old it is. They know and can tease out all the secrets of a living thing, gently and carefully with eternal patience. They have cared for the living caves, Ilineki Lionnai, for time out of mind. The planet's high amount of seismic activity has made the more valuable metals more readily accessible, and in turn there are seven types of obsidian unique to that world.

Ordinarily, life underground would be impossible on such a highly volcanic planet. What many failed to recognize was that the inside of the world was literally alive, the largest and most complex organism known to the Galactic races. Its surface is nothing but a protective covering. The creature fell into a star's orbit several billion years ago and has remained there since. It is still believed that the world itself has a spirit, and will recognize the day when Evil sets foot on or in it. There are still stories of the planet's own resistance against the Frnalk in the Fall of Nhakk-Aryyti, which was crafted into song in the fashion of old Earth Celtic tradition when Kodonera Ikiden Azhaani heard the story from Liani herself. But they still make thoughtscapes of Nhakk-Aryyti before the Frnalk broke it, mining and killing it.

The war now comes on ruthless, dark wings, old homeworlds torn apart by hatred, hidden faces and silent movements through the ancient desert ways, quietly, secretly desperate like people who know they are going to die. Now no one makes a sound or sends a message; you can vanish without a trace or be tortured in silence. Ships move in stealthy ways out across space, some running flat out, others on intricately looping courses to confuse their enemies. The space battles are fought with the ferocity of those who know that their world rides on their shoulders and the ground battles are fought with the brutality of those who know, and can't handle, that there is nothing for it, that everything will die, that no one will win. Races destroy each other with cold, calculated efficiency, systematically annihilating any enemy in their way. Whole star systems are obliterated when stars are forced to go nova, for instance, Resati can fall into the heart of a star and deploy a device that causes a deadly, unstoppable chain reaction in the sun's heart. Some races come in waves and fling themselves against the defenses of others in a desperate bid to gain ground. Some come by secret ways and strike quietly with deadly efficiency.

But only a few will prevail.

Liani's memory crystal states: "I define my strength as an unconventional kind of strength ... I will be here, standing ... damaged but healing ... when the smoke clears and the rest have fallen.

"Why? you may ask, or, How? But that answer is really a very simple one. ... I will use my mental shields as an example. They are not solid walls of iron, unyielding and cold. They are flexible and strong. If something hits them, the shock is absorbed and made to make them stronger.

"Nor do I waste my energy on total annihilation of the things that attack me. I resist them but I do not seek to destroy them. My people have been brutalized throughout their existence, but we still will not take the road of Death. Once, many years ago now, I counseled my people to forgive a race that viewed us as bloodthirsty beings, hardly sentient and unworthy of respect. To prove that I was serious, I sent one of my more powerful sons to them directly, trusting that he would know how to speak to them with the same keen intellect and innate understanding of minds that he, like me, has been known for. And I was right to have faith in him, and in our belief that these were intelligent creatures, that all one had to do was talk to them to know that.

"They have turned their back on peace since then. They call Sayeh the traitor heroine, the inhuman one who saved them. Sayeh knows she didn't do that, but she holds herself responsible for what happened, anyway ..."

It was only when the Bzzr's were cleared out that the usual group converged in Sayeh's Empanda apartment, Sayeh, Sareela, Kodonera, Lillian, Nahia, Clarissa, Simon, Morpheus, Cianan, Malcum, Maerlyn, Feliz, and Rachel. Sayeh had reluctantly told Rachel what Kkhlyyr had told her. She knew the half-Malachian girl would understand her problem to an extent, but she didn't know for certain that she would tell no one. After all, Rachel had nearly gotten Caiden Shadowblade killed a year before by betraying his whereabouts to Matt Valentino and Force.

"It's a good thing only a few of us were told," Maerlyn said, "if the wrong people got their hands on that, what would you call it? technology? Biotechnology? we'd have a few more serious problems than we have already."

"And we don't really need any more of those," Feliz finished for him, as if she were telepathically linked with Maerlyn, as if she were what Sayeh called a Nexus and Maerlyn were her anchor. And for all Sayeh knew, that might indeed have been the case.

"Is that the extent of their abilities?" Lillian asked.

"No," said Sayeh. "I don't think so. Ehnorrai didn't tell me the extent to which he was capable."

"Could he confine the effect to a part of a sector, perhaps even one ship?" Lillian asked.

"I don't know," Sayeh said.

"We have to talk to them again," said Simon.

"We need Liani," Sayeh said softly. "Trryhlin did mention them sending messages to her, so we know she's alive. Probably in some top secret location."

Sayeh had met Liani in Krenelia space. She was the most ancient being Sayeh had ever met, at nearly a millennium old, and she had been guiding her people for eight centuries, out of oppression and into freedom. Talking to Liani was like realizing how tiny you were in the grand scheme of things, how little and short your life was, like a mere few years or less to the ancient mind.

"Liani won't come," said Simon.

"If she does, everything will be OK," said Sayeh. "I know it will."

"You're thinking like them, Sayeh," said Simon.

"What else can I do?" Sayeh asked.

Sareela got up and hugged Sayeh.

Sayeh said, "It's like not knowing if you'll wake up." She stopped, visibly struggling with something. "Not knowing if you'll be here tomorrow. Not just that, not knowing if anything will be here. In the morning we could wake up to a Praelor occupation of all forty sectors. We could be forced into slave labor until they have no more use for us and they recycle us." She took a deep breath. "Everything you've ever known could be gone in a few hours. Things are always changing, but every once in a while everything shifts away completely, breaking apart and making something new, new but not always good." She looked away, but not before Sareela saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes. "Trryhlin says Kkhlyyr might not make it another day." She fought to swallow the lump in her throat. "I don't know why but that bothers me a hell of a lot more than it should. It would bother me anyway, but not this much. I know that sounds harsh, but I didn't know her, how can I grieve for her as much as some, without a memory to mourn? Yet there it is. If she dies it'll hit me harder than I want to admit to me, let alone anyone else." She took a deep breath. "If Trryhlin, who was close to her, can handle it outwardly, I should too."

"But he was made to be able to absorb shock better than you were," Nahia said. "Not to mention that you have lived a very openly emotional, very human life. Also, his bond has shifted, remember."

"I never could get used to the fact that we were the only race that was very openly emotional," said Simon.

"I grew up out of human space," said Sayeh, "but it still isn't easy. It never has been. I've worked for years just so you can't read my face like a book. I still can't do good blank, what-of-course-I-don't-know-anything, eyes."

"Bane Darkheart has good blank eyes," Lillian said.

"Bane Darkheart is CTN," said Maerlyn, "or at least he wants to be. no clue why. The super-powerful ships? The weaponry on said ships?"

"We don't know that," said Nahia.

"True," Maerlyn said, "we don't know weather or not he's actually cTN, but he did spend a bit of time on the public com channels saying how he wanted to find them and use their technology and man-power against his enemies."

"Whatever. Right now, whether Bane is CTN or not doesn't matter. The Frnalk won't care, and they'll kill him anyway, so there's no point in him telling them he's CTN," Sayeh said.

"I could just see that," Maerlyn said with a half smile,"he's surrounded by about six or eight of them and starts going on about how he's cTN. I could really see that one working. Their response would be something along the lines of, "claw claw, rip rip, tear tear, crunch crunch"."

The doorbell rang. Lily-Marie let out one of her curious little squeaks and scampered into the foyer. She had learned to walk early but she moved slightly bent over, hands sweeping in front of her, trailing across things, turning and lightly touching her surroundings, head up as if listening. She wasn't blind, but vision wasn't her primary sense. She could run straight up walls; everyone in the apartment had been witness to it.

When Sayeh reached the foyer, Lily was hanging from the door, one foot literally wrapped around the unmoving part of the doorhandle, the other wrapped around the top of the knocker, hands flat out, adhered to the ornately carved wood. Her face was pressed to the peephole. Sayeh peeled the tiny figure from the door and looked through. Lily dropped from her mother's hip and was gone. She could move incredibly fast for someone so small. For a moment Maerlyn thought she had flown past his face, and could almost feel a breeze. It had to be his imagination, or did it?

"Oh no," said Sayeh. "Oh, oh no, they're here ..." She hesitated, hand on the doorknob.

"Don't open that," Maerlyn said.

"They're High Guard," Sayeh said, "they could byepass the lock and get in anyway."

The beating came again, more insistently.

"If so," Maerlyn said, "then why are they intent on trying to bang their way through the goddamn door rather than bypassing the locking systems?"

Her face set in drawn, anxious lines, Sayeh opened the door on two men in black suits, both very tall, both very powerful, nearly identical with their dark hair and dark grey eyes.

"We're looking for Sayeh Azhaani," one said.

Sayeh had undergone a change as she opened the door. Now she looked cool, distant, and composed, with a completely empty face and perfect blank eyes. "This is she," she said, her voice remote and cool, almost bored.

"We're sorry," the other said, looking distinctly uncomfortable. Good on him. "We have to see ... the child you rescued. Lily-Marie."

There was the first hint of warm anger in Sayeh's glinting dark eyes. "Why would you have any reason to see my daughter?"

"Ma'am, can we come inside? This could ... take a moment," the first one said, eyes flickering to his partner, who nodded.

"This is private property," Sayeh said.

The other said, in a rush, "We think your child is of questionable origin."

"If you're accusing a Contributor of harboring an enemy ..." she began, dangerously quiet.

"No, not knowingly ..."

"Lily-Marie is the most harmless thing the galaxy has ever seen ..." Maerlyn began.

The child in question rushed out beneath their feet and into the lobby. One of the guards grabbed her as she went past. Her eyes grew impossibly wide, tears spilling from them, and she began to cry and struggle.

"You let her down, goddamn you!" Sayeh said and rushed at them. There was a scramble of bodies as High Guard fought with Sayeh and her family over the keening, flailing child. The two men drew turrets and began firing indiscriminately. Maerlyn, Feliz, Sareela, lillian, Morpheus, Cianan, and Clarissa drew theirs as well, one of Maerlyn's shots hitting one of the high Guard soldiers in the nose. The other took aim at Maerlyn, who, together with Feliz, took cover behind a carrier, which was, for some reason only known to its owner, powered up on the public docking bay, and the shot was absorbed by the large starship. Maerlyn aimed at the soldier he'd shot, only to see him recover himself, shoot Sayeh several times, and then go to work on the others, most of whom hadn't had time to seek any form of cover. When Maerlyn partially emerged from cover, one of the soldiers fired a shot that clipped his left hand and his skin began, immediately, to blister as if burned. Feliz pulled him back behind cover as the soldier fired again. This time, the shot was absorbed by the ship.

"Mexican stand off," Maerlyn thought, "we can't get directly at them, they can't get directly at us."

Maerlyn sank into droid mode, the same emotionless state Sayeh had adopted when the door had opened and saw the finish of the battle. The stunned bodies were tossed back into the apartment, the door was slammed, and Lily was gone.

As the high guard ship lifted off, Maerlyn emerged once again from cover. If anyone other than Feliz had been on the public docking bay of Empanda Station at that moment, they'd have taken him for a droid. he was clad in silver armor and wore all black beneath. his face was expressionless, his eyes cold. a single thought repeated in his mind.

"Track, rescue, eliminate all opposition by any means necessary."

In his mind, a plan began to form. A single name chimed again and again.

"Ghalemma Múrdegh."

Sayeh, on whom stun energy generally had a lesser effect, yet burned her skin (and now she knew why), staggered to her feet, shoved the door open and ran after the High Guard soldiers. They were disappearing into their ship when she got to the docking bay. She slumped, defeated. She didn't notice Maerlyn taking cover behind one of the powered ships in the public docking bay. Didn't notice his blank expression.

Lily was gone.

Gone.

Her mind refused to accept that Lily was gone.

She started to cry, desperate crying like someone who is giving up, gasping sobbing like there is no air, like there is no hope, like someone in the cold, alone, dying inside.

She staggered to her feet and managed to get back to her apartment before she collapsed. She was dimly aware of someone bending over her.

She opened her eyes and gasped, "I'm ... I'm OK."

Malcum lifted her to her feet and energy surged from her into him, desperate energy painfully seeking purchase inside him. Every nerve ending raced with tiny flames of desire. He gasped and clung on to her and tried to ride out the waves of energy coming out of her while keeping control of his thoughts. It wasn't working. She was soft and pliant against him, molded to him as if she belonged there, her mouth partly open to emphasize her full lips, her eyes beginning to burn with seductive light.

"Now," she said, trembling. "It's like Trryhlin told me. Phase is going to force itself on me or kill me."

"God damn," said Noctoro.

"Can a human body and mind handle it?" Sareela asked.

"Don't think so," Sayeh said. Her eyes were glowing and her skin was alight. She was unnaturally warm in Malcum's arms, and it was spreading to him in teasing fingers of heat.

"Listen to me," Malcum said, mustering all his effort, holding still, and taking her face in his hands (his touch sending fire down her nerve endings), "you have to be able to choose. You have to ..."

Her eyes blazed at him. Unable to stand it, he picked her up and carried her out of the room, into her room. Slowly, he sat down on the bed, cradling her in his arms.

"Lily's gone," she said. "I'm ... dying." She was fighting for purchase in her own mind, but a Nexus in full phase is something bursting with energy, intoxicating and heady and sweet and beautifully, almost painfully intense, riding that fine line between pleasure and pain. The only thing she could find that might damp the level of it was her loss, but it swept that away. It was a greedy, demanding energy, an energy of the body. The only thing a kin to it was the sexual energy of the Salenian, who enters a state of almost permanant phase at fifteen years of age.

"No you're not. You're alive. Listen to me. It is your choice."

But her hands had moved around him, her eyes blazing light inches from his, so bright they cast tiny shadows on his face. He couldn't think with her unnatural warmth wrapped around him, her infectious desire rushing through him. He tried to push her away so he could think. It wasn't working. Heat and desire was radiating off of her. Her eyes, glowing up at him, were terribly distracting. The faint colors in her skin, flawless and pale and soft, were brought out by the light that seemed to grow in her, making him want to trace their lines and swirls down her body. If she kisses me, he thought, that will be it.

He peeled her off of him. "I know I want you to choose me." And if you look at me with those big bright eyes for much longer, we might regret something in the morning. "But it _is_ your choice."

"It's Trryhlin," someone said from in the hall. Malcum was on his feet. Someone was opening the door. There was Trryhlin with Nahia standing beside him. She was so small that even he dwarfed her.

"Set her down," he said.

"What are you going to do?"

"Calm the phase."

Malcum raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"I am bonded. She cannot affect me."

"How can you do it?"

"She won't die if she is temporarily stabilized. And Kkhlyyr needs the energy. It will benefit all of us."

"Kkhlyyr needs _that_ energy?" Malcum asked.

Trryhlin's eyes flickered with a distant echo of the same sort of light flaring from Sayeh's eyes. "Our kloremra can take care of _that_ energy when it comes to Kkhlyyr. Now set her down."

"I don't want to know," said Malcum, setting Sayeh down nonetheless. Trryhlin moved toward her, glowing faintly, colorfully, in the darkness. Sayeh stood perfectly still, glimmering with her own light, her eyes like twin stars. Her glow seemed to rise until there were literally shadows around her. He reached out toward her, touching her face lightly, and there was a surge of light within her, and then she slumped, lightless and pale.

"Pick her up," Trryhlin said quietly. His eyes were glowing. He turned and left.

Malcum knelt beside Sayeh. Sareela was there, bending down to take the girl's wrist. "Her pulse was always fast," she said. "She had a higher metabolism than most of us. And she had to watch her PH." Sayeh was unnaturally pale, the colors in her skin so light you might almost think you'd dreamed them there.

"She's alive," Sareela said, sitting back and brushing the hair out of her eyes. Malcum lifted her and set her on the bed.

"Let's just let her sleep," he said.

But later they put him in his room, unable to move, hardly able to breathe, unable to keep any food down. Tears leaked through Sayeh's closed eyes and she screamed, rising like a pale ghost and sleepwalking restlessly until Sareela and Nahia caught her and put her back in her bed.

But Malcum's condition only worsened. Sayeh woke up in what seemed to be an agony of pain. And this time there was no ever-calm, ever-cool, all-knowing Trryhlin to tell them what to do, with that reassuring certainty of his. Sareela and Kodonera held their shaking, thrashing sister down. The young woman alternated between murmuring in snatches of Krenelian (which sounded like water over jagged rocks, and which only she had learned to speak successfully), and English and something that sounded old and fluid and powerful to screaming, reliving something in her delirium.

"This makes me wish for Trryhlin," said Kodonera.

"I know. It's odd, realizing how much we need him, realizing that doesn't bug me," said Sareela.

"should we try to find Maria?" asked Kodonera. "I think she might know what to do."

"He has Kkhlyyr to look after. And he's her second in command, meaning since she's indisposed he must be hard pressed to be in multiple places at once. And, I doubt that Maria is here. He said that their kloremra would pass the energy to Kkhlyyr, whatever that means, so my guess is that she's not around."

"You mean all that energy he drained out of Sayeh," Sareela said. "And now I'm not sure he should have done it."

"He couldn't have known this would happen," said Kodonera.

"Maybe ..." Sareela murmured. "I don't know."

"What?"

"Ehnorrai."

"Er? What about him?"

"As soon as he, it?, er, something?, entered the sector, I could feel it. This heavy, building wave of energy, cool but not cold ..." She shook her head. "It was so deep, it had so much power behind it."

"It's what we get for being sensitives," said Kodonera.

"Nera, Ehnorrai and his ship are vastly more powerful than they're letting on. There's enough contained energy in there to ..." She shook her head. "It's too much; how can one being contain it?"

"He is ancient," said Kodonera, simply, as if that explained everything. And maybe it did, knowing what little they did about Praelor. Sareela was just coming to realize just how much they didn't know about the unique race, and how vastly different it was from anything they had yet encountered, how alien and unreachable and unknowable they were.

A message came to the Azhaani from Trryhlin. "We may have lost Kkhlyyr's daughter. We may lose Kkhlyyr as well. We will not be strong enough to aid you successfully. I am sorry." And that was all he said, in typical cool distant Trryhlin fashion.

But Sareela could feel what lay behind the calm exterior of the words. It was odd thinking that someone so different could feel the same way a human felt grief, that they could share such a common thing as pain, that they could struggle to deal with the same sorrows. But she realized that could only be human bigotry, bred in through the generations.


	4. Chapter 4: Horizon's End

We are all here for the same reason. In the end, we have all striven for the same thing. All the power each race will gain boils down to one thing: survival.

There are epic tales in the histories of every great race. But seldom has there been an epic that many races shared together. In the humans' year 2357, our galaxy saw that epic, the Frnalk and CTN on one side, Static on another, Ontanka on another, the Krenelia and humans on another, and many more yet to come into play. It was a war that had started hundreds of years ago between Praelor factions, the sort of war that begins and ends like a nightmare. But this did not end. Static got involved, humans dropped into the middle of it, Salenia was attacked because of its strategic location, Anorai stepped in to help the Krenelia, and then no one could keep track of how the rest went. All anyone knew was that when the smoke cleared, no world was left the same and no colony had the ruler that it had before.

It was a war that would become an epic, but it was like all wars. The stories don't tell you now that it was a war upon a war upon a war upon a war upon a war. No one remembers how the Frnalk and Ontanka started fighting; Ontanka are known for being idiotically persistent in their unorganized attacks, and the Frnalk are notorious for doing what they please when they please to whom they please for no particular reason. Only we now remember why we formed from the wartorn mess of our race. No one else either knows or cares now. No one tells you that Static got involved because they viewed the wormhole drive and long range laser as their inventions, that humans got involved because of a horrible error in communication, and that humans' involvement grew over a territorial dispute among themselves.

Neither does anyone tell you of the hardships of war, the hundreds of millions of innocents who died, the hard times when supplies were rationed and conditions were poor, when children were killed for sport and pregnant mothers were chased down and killed in the name of ridding the galaxy of vermin. Epics emphasize the gory battles and the gruesome deaths of the heroes, but they always forget the victims whose bodies were trampled down beneath the feet of unthinking, brutal enemies, whose blood, as humans say, paved the road to war and glory. So many that deserve to be remembered were never known. So much that should have been said was left to live in silence. But war forgets all, war leaves the rest behind.

But I will remember them all.

Coman excerpt taken and interpreted from Liani's memory crystal.

The Azhaani were on Empanda with Sayeh and Malcum when the first wave hit.

It came in a motley mass of mutant ships, sweeping in formation across the sky, deadly terrible with their awesome power. Red-eyed bugs, their exoskeletons a dull red-and-black-patched color, appeared on Empanda, on the Pax stations, on Angelus, on Acrylon and Keyton.

But it wasn't over. This was just a small wave, meant to disorient the human and Krenelia pilots.

Waves landed on Zander and Rolu, on Varoshna, and on Outreach next. The Krenelia took to the skies and the humans took to the ground, and the air was filled with fire and ice, the never-ending battle.

at some point during this wave, the asteroid mining and processing stations reported Praelor ground forces. Those who were staffing the stations at the time were all killed, and several Asteroid Haulers were grounded, their 2-person crews trapped, unable to launch thanks to the ships over-head, unable to emerge from their ships thanks to the overwhelming ground presence.

At the same time as the first wave was beginning its attack, Maerlyn launched his expediter and somehow managed to jump into Sector 12, where his battle cruiser still sat on Rolu. As he'd timed it exactly right, he managed to miss the Muzati which jumped into sector 15 just behind the first ships in the enemy fleet. Sapphire And steel lifted off, just ahead of the forces that would soon occupy Rolu, making several stops on the way, one on Saturn to buy bardenium, one on jupiter to install seatbelts in every non-ship seat, be it chair, couch, sofa, or love seat, and then jumped back into 15.

He managed to crew up and for a time, 15 was once again clear. Then the second wave hit and Maerlyn had no choice but to land for repairs.

Sayeh woke some time during this second wave. She rose, silent and pale, face drawn into hard, grim lines, eyes cold and hard and glittering, depthless as two chips of dark, dark ice. She moved with slow, deliberate, precise movements, and would not speak to or look at anyone except to say, "Go in _Justyce_ and find WR's."

She ascended the levels to her control room, walking like someone who is going to their doom, her eyes staring straight ahead. "Leave Sarah Bird with Malcum," she said. "We can do nothing for him now. The galaxy needs us." Sarah Bird was the doctor they'd summoned for Malcum.

The blast door slammed shut behind her. When everyone was in the ship, including Cianan and Morpheus (who had returned from ground combat), they felt the effortless lift of the huge vessel, and the gentle thud as it was set down in the docking bay.

Sayeh didn't even wait for the arms to retract before beginning the launch procedures. She took to the skies like someone quietly, dangerously insane, pressing them all into their seats with the acceleration of liftoff.

Her implant crackled to life. "Watch for Kkhlyyr for me. I can't be in two places at once." It was the closest Trryhlin had come to showing emotion. Something struggled, and was suppressed, at the center of her being where the cold was deepest. Come back, it whispered feebly. But she was somewhere far removed from everything else, and all she knew were waves of cold, waves of calm, waves of emptiness.

She called out coords in a voice devoid of anything human, possibly of anything living, flying like a desperate person, like someone who knows, and doesn't care, that they could die at any moment, pulling off maneuvers she wouldn't have dared try before, especially against enhanced Praelor and CTN. The hard, cold energy that seemed to roll off of her scared her family into stunned, fearfully obedient silence. She was cold incarnate, the energy rolling off her like fingers of silvery-blue ice. And the battle only seemed to feed this until it snaked outward from the ship itself, and anything it touched curled into itself in frightened silence, trying to avoid the awful well of cold, cold, endless, fathomless ice. It wasn't like mental energy, like something you would channel, though that was definitely it, it was different. It was the very strength of the emptiness in her, and as it grew you could feel it from farther and farther away. Nothing was quite this empty. Everything felt something, be it twisted hate, desperation, determination, fear, sorrow, but not Sayeh. She literally felt nothing. She was nothing. She was like a traveling hole in space leading on to a no-space so empty that nothing could even exist inside.

Kkhlyyr's ship entered the sector and she said, not thinking, to her implant: "Turn back, or steal one of the CTN's rel drives."

There was chiming metal laughter in her ear. "There is no choice," came the response.

"Don't be ridiculous."

"The entire world is ridiculous now, what is the point in trying not to be?"

Sayeh sighed. The thing, called warmth, called Sayeh, moved in the center of the emptiness again. "Kkhlyyr, turn back."

"No can do, Sayeh."

"Damn you," Sayeh muttered. "Reckless, irrational ..."

She flew to try and help Kkhlyyr, to be the speed that the bigger, clumsier ship lacked while Kkhlyyr was the firepower of the team. Sayeh unconsciously reached out for Kkhlyyr's thoughts, the two minds met and they worked in tandem. The others picked up on what Sayeh was doing quickly, after all, a ship like Kkhlyyr's _Trrghlinh_ had never been seen in human space, so they knew that it had to be her.

"I have to get reps," Sayeh said simultaneously into the implant and the PA. Then, to the implant: "Kkhlyyr, listen to me, please."

"Sayeh ..."

"What is it? You weren't like this earlier. Now you ... Oh God." The thought had occurred to her, the realization finally sinking in.

Kkhlyyr had lost her daughter.

"Not yet," said Kkhlyyr. But suddenly the ship wheeled, turning to make its slow, ponderous way toward Pax.

"What is it?" Sayeh asked. And then it clicked. Kkhlyyr had said not yet. Then why was she in the sky in the middle of a battle?

She was out of her mind, Sayeh decided. She turned toward Empanda.

"Shit! Blockades!" she said.

The computer flashed a message, and Sayeh breathed a sigh of relief. "Praelor Resati _Lyyrrh_ _Jrriya_ has jumped into the sector." Ehnorrai, with his time manipulation, could slow them down ...

Space and time trembled. Something seemed to build just below the surface of space, almost as if you could push your hands through and into it, feeling whatever it was made of. Everything rocked and trembled, the very bonds that held things together troubled by ... something.

And then ... there was a space that Sayeh couldn't remember. Had it been seconds, minutes, maybe hours? She couldn't tell. And the more she tried to focus on it, the more her head spun in confusion.

"Ehnorrai," she said into her implant, "you stopped time."

The ship floated in space, dark and blind.

"Ehnorrai," she said. Oh shit. Had he let the crystal generator burn itself out? First Kkhlyyr, then him?

Slowly, the ancient ship started to move. Sayeh said quietly into her implant, "You going to make it?" The response came, faint and thready with soft white noise like waves, "Yes ..."

The wormhole seemed to open slow and hazy, though Sayeh knew it was just her imagination, and Ehnorrai passed through. Sayeh flew through the hulks and debris of CTN, Alliance and Praelor ships alike, headed for Empanda and repairs.

"That didn't just happen," said Simon.

"It did," said Sayeh, collapsing into a chair in her apartment. She rubbed her eyes. "I hope Trryhlin tells us how the birth went, soon. Wait, how quickly does she go back into phase, I wonder."

She knew what phase would do to you, thanks to last night, making you into a being of carnal energy, suppressing your mind until it was sated. And that energy could take a long time to run its course. However, this time when Kkhlyyr went into phase, it would be a different sort of phase, Kloremra phase, a different thing. For Kkhlyyr, the time of uncontroled lust and the choosing of consorts was done, but she would always remember that time in her life. Sayeh, who would probably never enter that time in her own life would need an anchor consort, which she would keep until death. That was why Kkhlyyr had wanted her to make her decision before the onset of phase, rather than let her lust choose for her, for it would have no mind, only desire.

"I wouldn't know," a chorus of voices said, and then continued, "and I wouldn't want to know."

"Good to know that you're capable of conjuring up such traumatizing imagery without even hinting at it," Sayeh said dryly. "How's Malcum?"

"Fading fast," said Dr. Bird. "Sayeh, I need you to come with me. He wants you."

Sayeh rose slowly, her heart pounding with dread. What would happen if he died? She would have no one to anchor to, that was what. She would lose someone dear to her, a good man that had stood beside her for a long time.

No, she thought as she followed Dr. Bird through the long, quiet halls of her "apartment" (more like a thirty-five-room mansion), the carpet muffling their steps so that there was an eerie quiet over the house. I have many choices. But there is none that I would want. She realized sadly that there was no one she could trust so completely that she would let him that far into her mind.

There was one person that had never failed her. She had had complete, blind faith in him more times than she could count in more impossible, complicated situations than she could count. He had always made his way quietly out of the rubble of the mess, sorted out what was left, and been true to his word, that when he was near, she was completely safe. He was one of those presences that you became quickly familiar with, the sort of strength you didn't associate with time. He might really always be there. It was something you didn't question.

And he was the only person Sayeh could never read. Sayeh had hardly seen him unless he was quietly in charge of something, holding a group together with his presence alone. He was like a human Trryhlin, she thought suddenly.

But the one person she could trust completely was out of the question. He didn't connect to people. Something twisted inside her, a bitter, empty loneliness. She was alone in the truest sense of the word, alone in the spirit. She was losing the people dearest to her. They were all losing good people.

They reached Malcum's room. He was thin and pale in the expansive bed with its thick blankets and feather mattress. To Sayeh he seemed years older, his eyes distant and dim. Sayeh went to him and stood next to the bed, looking silently at him. His eyes focused slowly on her. "Sayeh," he murmured.

She sat down beside him. Sarah Bird left quietly.

"You going to make it?" Sayeh asked gently.

"No," he said simply.

She was quiet, appearing outwardly composed. But inside it was all she could do to keep her face from cracking, from sliding off and revealing that everything she'd ever known was coming apart and everyone she'd ever loved was slipping away.

"Sayeh?"

She sighed. "Malcum ... I already started to make the connection."

"What does that mean?"

"We're both going to die. I won't have to worry about losing _Justyce_ now ..."

"No, no!" He went into a coughing fit, growing agitated. Finally he managed to say, "No, don't leave."

Sayeh sighed. "You either have to solidify the connection and become my anchor, which in that condition you can't manage ... or let me unbind it properly."

He sank back against his pillows, looking more thin and pale than ever. She had never seen Malcum look fragile, but he did now.

"I can't do that," said Malcum, reaching out with a great effort and taking her hand. She held on to him, feeling how cold he was. She could almost feel his life slipping out of him.

"Sayeh," he said, his eyes fluttering, his breath slipping. He went into another coughing fit, curled on the bed in pain. Sayeh climbed up and sat directly beside him, pulling him into her arms where he lay shaking in exhaustion.

She wiped the hair from his face and held him, and for a moment the connection flared between them, seeking purchase, seeking completion. He gasped, red tears leaking from his eyes. "It hurts, Sayeh ..." he whispered.

Sayeh couldn't say anything through the tears in her eyes. She clung to him and cried silently, because she could feel it too. But her pain would have no sound to define its agony, only silence to express that no sound could encompass it.

His body jerked in her arms, his back bowing, his hands flung back, his eyes, nose and mouth leaking red, red blood. He collapsed, the tension leaving him. He gasped once and was still, his breath slipping away with the faint sound of her name. As the last of the connection that would have been left her, Sayeh collapsed, exhausted. And that was where Sarah Bird found her a few minutes later, so weak that she was barely conscious. She enlisted the help of Simon and Cianan to move Sayeh to her room, and radioed over general communication that Sayeh's battle cruiser would not be in the air, because she was sick.

As Sarah Bird prepared to leave Sayeh's apartment, Maerlyn approached her.

"You did everything you could," he said gently, "even if you'd known what it was that killed him, you couldn't have gotten him to where he needed to be."

"I don't even know what killed him," Sarah said, "at first I thought it had something to do with ..."

"No," Maerlyn said simply, 'not that."

"Then what?" Sarah asked.

"A contact poison," Maerlyn said, "an extremely deadly contact poison. It was painted onto the hull of one of the ships in the public docking bay."

"How do you ...?" Sarah began.

"I smelled it," Maerlyn answered.

"You smelled it?" sarah asked.

"Yes," Maerlyn replied, "I smelled it. I smelled it on him and I smelled it in the public docking bay when those high Guard thugs took Lilly Marie. I smelled it just like that time last year when we nearly lost Caiden Shadowblade. I smelled it then too and got him to Sector 115, to the medical facility there. But with all that," he pointed upwards, "going on, we couldn't have gotten him there in time. I doubt I'd even have managed it in Sapphire And Steel, not with that many Frnalk ships up there. I'd have just lost a BC and finished up, together with everyone aboard, on Outreach, which is currently swarming with Frnalk ground forces. From there, we'd have been bug food."

"Who'd want to poison ...?" Sarah began, but Maerlyn cut her off, as if expecting the question.

"Allon Martellato," he said, 'but Malcum wasn't the target. The ship the stuff was on was caiden's BC, Vindico Atrum. Allon wanted, even now, to kill him. but Caiden was wearing armor. Malcum wasn't, and that stuff got into his system through the pours of his skin. Once introduced, you only have a limited amount of time to seek medical treatment, and standard medical drones in a ship's med bay can't extract it. Only advanced medical droids like the ones on the station in 115 can do that."

"It effected Sayeh badly," Sarah said, "she must have really loved him."

"It's not quite as simple as that," Maerlyn said, "Sayeh's a nexus. I'm still not sure of all the ramifications of that, but she was, forging a connection with him. he was to be her anchor. Thanks to his death, she has no anchor now."

"I don't ..."

"I don't either, not completely," Maerlyn said, "but if Sayeh dies, I'll see to it that Allon Martellato isn't long for this world either. but first ..." he trailed off, lost in thought.

Hours later, someone was shaking Sayeh awake. It was like rising through deep, dark water to a crashing, tumultuous surface. Down below there was nothing, no sound, no light, but up above, the storm had let loose. Sayeh had slept so deeply she hadn't dreamed, hadn't been aw5 of any time, like a no-space, no-time within her mind.

Sareela was leaning over her. "There was a message from Trryhlin," she said. "Kkhlyyr made it."

Sayeh blinked up in confusion at her sister, and then the events of the last few days came crashing in on her and a knot of dread, worry and grief settled into her stomach and coiled there, tense and painful and impossible to undo.

"Her daughter?" Sayeh asked.

"Alive," said Sareela, "for the time being."

"That's ... a good sign," Sayeh murmured. "How long have I slept?"

"Fifteen hours."

She groaned inwardly. Fifteen hours! And that hadn't even been enough. "What's happened?"

"Outreach is occupied. High Guard's been on the ground with our ground crews for two hours."

"Shit," said Sayeh, getting up. "Out. Everyone out. I'm showering and changing." She closed the door.

In another ten minutes she went over general communication. "I'm back in the sky. Do you need me on Outreach?"

There was a chorus of "Yes!" and "Goddamn!" over general comms.

"Oi, quit the comm spam!" Sayeh said. She went into her garage. Maerlyn's sentinel was just being lifted in. Everyone piled off. Sareela, Lillian, and Nahia joined Sayeh and the others on the battle cruiser.

"Time to break into the fund," Sayeh said. "We need atmo combat vehicles. I've never had a reason to get them." They flew to Acrylon and Sayeh left them temporarily.

Minutes later she was back, and they were headed to Outreach. Someone had an ameliorator on Deneii that was periodically launching and attaching ships to it. There was a small army of fighters and four BC's defending it against the Praelor ships in the sector.

Sayeh's BC launched a small fleet of fighters and several atmo combat fighters, incredibly tiny, compact craft swirling like motes of leagh! in Outreach's upper atmosphere, the fighters arrowing out in formation, lit by the energies of their drives. They were going to be stuck in the air or on Deneii, because Outreach was overrun with bugs.

"There's a new kind of bug on the ground! Looks normal, but is extremely resilient, fast, and powerful, and they work strategically, in teams!" someone was calling over short-range comms.

Sayeh had something special in her ship, something that she and a few others had designed. It was called TAAI, Telepathically Activated Artificial Intelligence. The telepathic circuits were precious things, installed by nonhumans thousands of light-years away. And the intelligence didn't seem so artificial sometimes.

"Taai," Sayeh said to the computer (she still preferred speaking to it), "I need your help."

A flickering image of a young girl came into existence. She was barely seventeen, with long midnight-black hair, sapphire eyes, a pale complexion and a delicate face and figure. Her mischievous grin and sparkling eyes seemed so human. "Sayeh, up to something?"

"Yes. Show me what's going on on the ground, if you would be so kind?"

"Of course."

Whoever was crying over short-range, and who was now eerily silent, was right. They looked like normal Praelor, but they didn't move like it. These were strategists and tacticians, and they knew how to work things to their advantage. They knew how much more fast and deadly accurate they were than humans. They worked in teams, which all worked as one unit, throughout the city.

But ... Flipping through the scenes (letting Taai fly for a moment), Sayeh began to observe something unusual. She found the view of a street, where a young woman lay bleeding and burned, her clothing mostly burned off. One of the normal-looking bugs scurried into the area, and stopped.

"Can you give me audio, Taai?" Sayeh murmured.

"My pleasure."

And Sayeh almost wished she hadn't asked for it.

The woman was crying, rasping something in some Old Earth language. With excruciating effort she rolled on to her side and covered her face.

The big, glittering bug, its carapace a surprisingly, incongruously pretty patchwork of bright colors, came over to her, dropping on to all five (but not in the same position they'd use to spray you), and peered at her through its big, dark faceted eyes. It made some sort of soft, chittering noise. The woman made a little frightened sound and tried to move away, her eyes leaking fresh blood. Again the soft chittering noise came, pitched on an almost questioning lilt. She dared to risk a glance through her hands at the bug, who was standing beside her, its head cocked.

Suddenly its entire body jerked and its legs buckled. It cried out, a tiny pitiful sound that didn't dare be loud enough for anyone nearby to here, just the woman who was staring at it oddly. It stood up and ran out of the camera's range (though no one knew the cameras were there so that was irrelevant), as if in fear of ... something.

Sayeh tabbed to the next scene, but the rest seemed to slide past her eyes, not making an impact in her mind. Interesting. Very interesting, she thought. It was a puzzle that felt terribly ominous to her. Something didn't sit right, and suddenly she realized that there was something terribly wrong with what had happened to that bug, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. It unsettled her on a level that she couldn't describe. But every single warning flag, red alert and alarm bell had gone off in her mind. This was _not_ normal, this was even more abnormal than what was going on here.

Trryhlin's "voice" spoke into her implant. "You saw the same thing I did," he said.

"What is it?" Sayeh asked, glancing at the displays to make sure Taai was flying all right. They were approaching the ameliorator now, which had just launched. One of its escort was covering them as they approached.

"We don't know. There are many theories, however. We know they are being mind-controlled by encrypted frequencies sent to devices implanted in their brains."

"Is the ship that carried them still in the air?"

"Yes, it is in the air, floating at the top of the sector directly below you."

"I'm going to go pulse it!" Sayeh said. She relayed the information over general comms.

"Why are they telling you these things, and not HG?" Matt Valentino demanded.

"For one, HG doesn't do shit, they expect us to put our lives on the line for them, but when we need them they're nowhere to be found. For two, I needed a communications link with the Praelor that was my main connection in Krenelia space so they gave me one. I had no idea it could go to my implant, too. This is a good thing, I think."

"What are you doing?" Matt asked.

"Going to pulse the carrier," said Sayeh.

"Can't," Matt rejoined, "there are still scores of Muzati and Muzano in the sector."

Muzati are primarily interdictors. Muzano interdict, hit as hard as Onati, drop bombs and drop pods full of ground Praelor," Sayeh responded, "I think they're too occupied with what's going on on the ground and among their own forces to worry about either us or that CTN ship."

"And too many damned CTN," Matt said, "if you time it wrong, you'll end up with your ship in pieces."

Sayeh spoke into the implant. "Trryhlin?"

"Sayeh."

"Can't do it. Too many Muzzies."

"I'm coming in."

"You and what damned army?" Sayeh muttered, but he didn't respond. "_Fuck!"_ she said, slamming a hand on to the console. Repairs were done, so she took the controls back from Taai. "You heard that, Taai?" she asked, meaning the implant.

"I pinpointed its frequency. And cracked the code."

Sayeh sighed. "You're going to have to develop some scruples, Taai," she said.

"Oh what, why? That just complicates things."

"Oh, Taai," Sayeh said. "I can't talk your way out of everything."

"I never leave traces," Taai said.

"Oh, Taai," she said. "You, Ehnorrai, Kkhlyyr, Trryhlin. I seem to know all the people who think they're indestructible and cheerfully depend on dumb luck to pull off their escapades."

"Mmmhmmm," said Taai distractedly. "Maybe. I wouldn't know. Oh look, it's great one himself."

Trryhlin, followed by fifteen Onati, had jumped into the sector.

She muttered into her implants, "Great one, there aren't enough of you."

"Of course not. Was I supposed to conjure up an army? I can do that, but give me time."

"That's what I asked you," she said. And then a thought hit her. "You don't intend to die in here?" What was with everyone and their subconscious death wishes these days?

"Not if I can help it," he responded. "Pay attention to your controls."

There were CTN drone fighters bearing down on the BC. "Gun like motherfuckers," she said over the PA, scanned the display, and said, "53."

A minute later she slammed down the PA switch: "50 goddamned 3! Watch your fucking weapons locks! Are you fuckwits _mental?"_ she yelled. Someone had hit one of Trryhlin's ships. It backed away and, with a stroke of bad luck, found that it had a swarm of CTN fighters closing in on it. CTN fighters are a problem for any ship to take out, powerful or not. But suddenly, Vindico Atrum jumped into the sector, and its weaponry immediately opened up on the drone fighters.

"Shoot the Potates!" Sayeh said, since they were free of the CTN drones for the moment. "Shoot the goddamn Potates! There are too many fucking Bzani in the sector!" If you can even call that a Potate, she thought.

"If you don't shoot the goddamn Potate I'm going to, oh shit we have to go pick up the fighters. Hold fire, idiots." She turned the big ship, bringing it near Outreach.

"You don't have time!" Maerlyn said over PA.

"What do you mean?" Sayeh asked.

"Trryhlin!" Sareela said. "Oh, God, Iyana ..."

She'd reverted to the old name the Krenelia had called Sayeh by, Iyana. Iyana. The name echoed strangely in Sayhe's head. But it was hers. Liani had called her by it first, "Iyana-ia," she had said, "welcome." And you instantly knew that you were in an ancient, powerful presence. But it wasn't intimidating, if anything her presence helped to center and calm you.

"What is it?" Sayeh said. And then she saw it.

"Trryhlin, get out of there!" she muttered furiously into her implant. What would happen to them if they lost him? What would happen to Kkhlyyr or Maria? What would ... Oh Jesus Christ, she thought, watching the missile platform bear down on Trryhlin. "Trryhlin!" she said desperately, "_can you hear me?"_

"It's all right," he said. "Iyana, it's ..." There was a burst of static. "... Khlyyr and ... I don't ..."

"Come back," she whispered, but all she got was static. "Goddamn you, you brave, wonderful, reckless idiot ..."

The fighters had finished docking. She turned the ship and piloted it headlong into the swirl of CTN drone fighters that surrounded Trryhlin and his opponent.

"You're mental, Sayeh!" Cianan said. "Go back! Go back!"

Sayeh pulled back. "Kkhlyyr," she said into her implant with a crying, dying desperation, "you're going to lose Trryhlin."

"I know."

She thought they couldn't manage emotion in their voices. Yet she'd never heard a voice sound more desolate in her life.

"Kkhlyyr, I ... don't know what to say."

There was a wash of static, and through it, thready and faint, "... You don't have to."

Why was this hitting her as hard as it did?

"Outreach's atmosphere is clear," Morpheus said to her. Sayeh turned the battle cruiser back and landed, aware that she had just abandoned Trryhlin, condemning him.

Sareela came into the room. "Are you OK?" she asked.

"No," Sayeh sighed. "I just abandoned Trryhlin. I'm not OK."

"There was nothing you could do," Sareela said.

"So many humans and Krenelia are going to die today," Sayeh said, "but it didn't _have_ to end this way ..."

"We may think it doesn't ... But whether we actually had tried to prevent it, and you know no one did, it wouldn't have changed anything."

"Maybe you're right," said Sayeh.

"Um Sayeh?" Cianan said. "Kkhlyyr's in the sector."

"We can't do anything until we get reps," she said. She got up.

"The ground's not clear!"

"I'll run."

"But ..."

"Plus, I have a theory. If any of you put a toe outside this battle cruiser I'll stun you and put you on Rolu, because that's where Unorderly hangs out, and they'll be more likely to get you before your friends do."

"Hey!"

"OK, then I wouldn't go outside if I were you, hmmm?" she said. "Because Rolu is ground Frnalk central, and I don't think there's a distinguishable difference between them and Castor."

"Uh, Castor's not quite as ugly yet?" Maerlyn ventured.

She got up and went to the airlock. There were no Frnalk on the landing pad, but there were a group of the normal-looking Praelor, which was exactly what Sayeh wanted.

She stepped on to the landing pad. The Praelor glanced at her warily, but she made no move toward her turret or her ammo. She sank slowly down on to her heels and removed her translator from her pocket, but didn't reveal it yet.

"Trryhlin," she muttered, "are you there? Trryhlin, I need you."

"I'm here."

"Oh, thank Gods, you idiot, great one," she said. "Muzzi gone?"

"The last Muzati is gone, yes. More will come in, however. You have a very narrow window."

"Just to get out, not back in," Sayeh said.

"Of course."

She tabbed the key for short-range communications on her communicator and received only an error message. "But it won't be me going out. I want you to radio ... Billy James. In _Galactic_ _Storm._ There's a comm jammer on the ground now, that's why short-range went quiet, I just tried to send something. Only special frequencies get through, different waves, like this, I want you to ask him to drop out of the sector, launch an interdictor, and pulse that carrier. Can you get back to me with his response?"

"Certainly." Moments later: "He's undocking from the ameliorator. He can do it. But Sayeh, he does not have much time. What is it like, on the ground?"

"LP's quiet for the moment. I don't have much time, either," she said. "I've got an idea. Get back to me with his results?"

"When he returns."

"Good." She revealed the translator. The biggest of the bugs eyed it. She thumbed it on and set it on the ground, aiming outward. She tabbed it to send to her implant rather than through its speaker.

She said through it, "I am Iyana. Sayeh Azhaani." The dark depressions in one side of the device irised open and turned on the Praelor nearest her, apparently the leader of this team.

"I know that your controller can hear me," she said. "And it could be my death so I will speak quickly. The rogue CTN and the Frnalk will learn to fear the sight of Hope, for them, there will not be Hope. There will be Sayeh. I am their _azhaani_ now." Iyana, she had been told, meant hope. If they have named me Hope, she had thought, what if I let them down ..."

"The carrier's frequencies have just gone silent," Trryhlin reported. "Kkhlyyr has informed Hale to jam them." There was a moment of silence, then: "_Galactic_ _Storm_ is back."

"Good," she subvocalized into her implant. Then she said: "The carrier that brought you and forced you into servility has been pulsed. Their communications have been jammed, in case they come online again. High Guard will probably come by soon to retrieve it. You are free."

The translator activated as the bug leader sent to it and said: "We are in your debt, Iyana. Liani knew that you would bear your name well."

Liani. They knew Liani. What if they were Krenelia or, something more horrible had happened than even she had guessed.

She turned away, not willing to look at him. Not if I die, she thought.

"There's no plan," she said after a moment's silence. "Actually, we're making it up as I go along." She sat back on her heels, relaxing slightly, keeping her eyes on the lead Praelor, whose eyes tracked any and every movement. His reflexes were far faster than any human's. She would know if something happened, and she had more senses than five. She was alert on every level, waiting as tensely as they were.

"We know there is a Nexus in the sector." It was a good thing the translator said Nexus; the many-layered compound had too many meanings, so many that it would probably translate to a long, convoluted sentence that meant about fifteen different things if they hadn't changed it.

"Kkhlyyr," said Sayeh. "I have to go back to the BC and bring out the ground crew. Don't worry about it, they are all ... of my network. None will shoot you. Kkhlyyr will be in contact with you soon. Spread the word." She stood up. "Are there Frnalk ships on the ground?"

"No," one of them said. "They come down in pods."

"How many?" she asked. "So far."

The Praelor considered. "Several hundred in the city alone. I cannot guess at what the rest of the planet has suffered."

"Atomics?" Sayeh asked.

"Surely not," a tiny blue-hued creature said.

"Very possibly," their leader said. "This is CTN we are dealing with, not just the Frnalk. They do not need atomics, but it would amuse their more ruthless commanders to use them."

"You can sense radiation, can't you?"

"If the CTN have used atomics here, the radiation has not reached the city yet. I have not passed through any hot zones."

He turned his head suddenly, so fast it was nearly a blur. A huge dull red shape flowed toward them. Sayeh had her turret out and was firing with a quickness born of instinct and years of practice, the sort of speed that only those who grow up in war seem to possess. There was a scramble of legs and wings and Sayeh had to put away her turret and scoop up her translator and duck into the airlock. When she was safe inside, she noticed Maerlyn peering out, watching.

"Static," he said/sent, his mind touching sayehs and then moving outwards, seeking something, anything like a mind in the redness approaching them.

You can't do anything, Sayeh, she told herself sternly. This is no longer a world you know anything about. If you go back out there, like this, you will most certainly die ...

The age of humanity is over.

She could feel the voice more than she could hear it, as it boomed through every sound-conducting surface on the face of each alliance's capital planet.

The age of Ttanna'in'Ghrria has begun.

She didn't know what that meant, but it sounded harsh and dark and some instinct in her screamed that it was wrong and horrible ...

The madness, the triviality, the utter waste of Humanity must be ended. Those races loyal to galactic balance cannot allow such a discordant, decadent race to continue.

"And you, whatever you are," Maerlyn's voice chiming in her head, nearly as powerful as the previous voice, causing her to wonder exactly how powerful her adopted brother was, "you with all your power, even you have no right. Who are you to judge us? If you destroy us, what would make you so much better than those you judge?"

"That which does not become part of the one must become void," the first voice replied.

"There are exceptions," Maerlyn sent, "there are those of us who have risen above the hate and bloodshed and fear of anything not their own. We're living creatures, capable of love, of understanding. You can't just ..."

"There are no exceptions," the first voice rejoined, "you destroy anything you touch. You take everything you're presented with and utilize it for destruction. There are no exceptions."

It, whatever it is, is right, Sayeh thought, with a sudden, sickening realization. We are only one of so many blights on the galaxy. We rape and burn and kill, pillaging everything of true power from other races and claiming it as our own. We have no thought for the lives we destroy. We have no thought for the sheer evil we so unthinkingly breed, like infection in a wound. Killing us would not begin to atone for what we have done.

Sayeh collapsed and wept, her mind spinning with images of places she could never know, with thoughts too cold and alien to be her own.

We are a race of passion and greed, she thought through the mental roar, casting her thought out into the roiling darkness of minds. We are a race of madness, fear, hate and anger. And like any race, we have exceptions ... except for us, good is the exception.

"No, Sayeh," a quiet soothing voice spoke in her head, and the alien coldness was forced back by a force of unbreakable steel willpower, which contrasted harshly with the sweet, musical voice which Sayeh recognized immediately as Maria shadowblade's. "Some of my ancestors were humans, and braver more honorable people you could not have found anywhere. Humanity is no worse or no better than any other race in the galaxy. Calm down now, and do not listen to lies mixed with half truths." But the force was still there, beating franticly against the iron bands of Maria's will, and suddenly, Sayeh felt another presence, cool, detached, and determined. this third presence wrapped itself quickly around Maria's, and, just as her mind seemed to begin to bend, pulled it out, brutally severing the tenuous link which Maria had formed with Sayeh and drawing Maria's mind behind impregnable shielding. In the moment of utter calm before the relentless alien voices began to beat at her again, Sayeh had time to think, "that was not Caiden."

"And you," Maerlyn sent, "do you not create weapons? You ended God knows how many innocent lives when you destroyed High Guard Command in sector 24. Even more innocents have gone into the black hole you left behind. And then you wiped out an entire alliance. Are you not even more destructive than you're accusing us of being?"

"You destroy without thought," the first voice again, "you are hopelessly divided, even against yourselves. You kill your own kind without a second thought, yet when you are threatened with extinction, you temperarily ally with the very ones you would otherwise destroy. Your race must not contaminate the universe any further."

"And you destroy with thought?" Maerlyn sent, "you, who have killed more in a single stroke than all the battles in the Org wars put together? You, who created the deadliest weapon ever encountered in the universe, in the name of peace?"

"Your race has stolen from us," the voice that represented the Static returned, "stole from us to create weapons more destructive than anything known to it."

"And so for stealing, you intend to wipe us all out?" Maerlyn inquired, "where's the justice in that?"

"You, who destroy your own, dare to speak of justice?" the static said, disbelief seeming to enter the voice at this point, "you who know not justice?"

"Wait!" Maerlyn sent, but the connection was severed, the communication ended.

"No," Sayeh murmured. "No, no, no ..."

She didn't realize she was talking into her implant until she heard Trryhlin's voice, pitched specially to quiet, level, calming tones, tilted so that it would get her attention: "Sayeh, what happened? Sayeh. Talk to me. Sayeh!"

She almost couldn't gather up the energy to respond. "Trryhlin ..." she murmured. Consciousness was slipping. Every time something even a little stressful happened she collapsed. She gasped. "Help me ... I ... don't know ..."

She felt the battle cruiser lift off. 15 was in a lull between attacks, but no one was enjoying the brief respite.

"I can't," he said. "I'm sorry." He wasn't sure if she even heard him.

Someone picked her up, placing her on the bed in the control room.

"There will be no anchor," she said.

"Hold on," Trryhlin said. "I have an idea."

"What?"

"Ehnorrai," he said.

She made no comment. Her silence was enough.

"Ehnorrai _is_ a balancing influence. But this will be tricky, because you can't anchor to Ehnorrai, and no one even needs to start on why."

"Then ...?"

She felt the tilt of descent. "We're landing on Empanda." It was Maerlyn.

"Can you get to 35? We haven't suffered a massive attack yet."

"Maerlyn ... Go find _Feather_ ... Take us to 35," she said weakly.

Maerlyn and Cianan picked her up and carried her down to the expediter. Sayeh revived somewhat and shooed them out, piloting the little ship out of the battle cruiser's docking bay. The bright blue mouth of the wormhole opened and swallowed the little mote that was _Feather._ The expy was called _Feather_ for a reason.

As Sayeh's Expediter departed, Maerlyn boarded his own, Miria. He knew that if he was to do anything to even begin executing the plan he'd begun forming when High Guard had taken Lilly Marie, it was to be now. He jumped into sector 15, subwarping to the coordinates from which he could land on Empanda, powered Miria down, garaged it, and entered Sapphire And Steel.

Sayeh landed the delicate little ship and sat silently for a minute, gathering her strength. There was a light tapping on the hull.

"Either come out or unlock, if you can," Trryhlin said.

Sayeh climbed wearily to her feet and stumbled out on to the docking bay. Ehnorrai and Trryhlin were there. Ehnorrai stood upright so that he could look her in the eye, but he was two inches taller than she was. "Look at me, Sayeh," the deep, resonant voice, pitched to calming tones, said.

Sayeh looked up to meet the fathomless, dark eyes, and stopped in amazement. It looked almost like there were galaxies of lights whirling against a stunning flawless, dark backdrop in Ehnorrai's huge, faceted eyes. It wasn't like the lit glow of phase. It was like looking out into space. It was vast and echoing, terrifying and awesome, like a well of pure blackness flecked with hard, cold fire, blue, white, red, yellow ... She stepped back slightly.

"This is what it means to see all times," he said simply. However he projected his voice was beyond her, because it was flawless. It was a voice like space, a voice like darkness itself. But it was not evil, and there was no ill intent in it. There was only power and age. Standing in front of Ehnorrai was like standing in front of Liani, yet it was completely different. Liani's presence was like a fountain of light. Ehnorrai was the absence thereof. And he was so very ancient ...

"I can't help you permanently," he said. She had trouble remembering that "he" was neither, because they had chosen a male voice for him. "You are a particularly unique case, too unlike one and too unlike the other to connect as far as anyone can tell." Sayeh noticed absently that he was cold, no heat seemed to come off him, like most living things. "But there is a connection that a Nexus makes that is for a different purpose. I can only define it in ..." His voice switched from English to something that reminded Sayeh of icy water over jagged rocks, filled with falling vowels and inward-sliding consonants, fricatives and clicks, trilled double consonants and odd, rhythmic cadences, beat beat beat ... beat ... beat beat beat ... beat ... went the rhythm.

He stopped. "My translator has informed me that it finds no suitable interpretation." There was something almost like a sigh. "I can't explain it, then, I can only show you." He dropped back down, moving toward the airlock iris with surprising speed.

They moved through the mazes of dimly-lit, uneven tunnels for what seemed like centuries. Everywhere there was more tunnel, stretching and looping in convoluted configurations whose purpose escaped Sayeh. She stopped trying to keep track of the turns and loops and instead focused on keeping up with Ehnorrai. Being back here seemed to have gilen her energy again, enough to cushion her temporarily against the effects of being suspended in phase.

They reached a room whose center was what looked like a shimmering pool.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Living, liquid crystal," he said. "We use it as a linking mechanism, due to crystal's wonderful energy-conducting properties." He went to the edge of the pool and stepped in, quickly sinking far enough that only his eyes showed.

"You go in, too," said Trryhlin. "There are two sides to it, due to its alignment." The pool was almost butterfly-shaped, if you thought of a very abstract butterfly, or a very abstract figure eight, or a very abstract combination of both.

"It's not acidic," he said. "It's crystalline. Literally. Its nature is very complicated."

She stepped gingerly into the other side of the pool. It was surprisingly cool to the touch, but not cold. As she went further into it, she realized it was a very buoyant substance, and deeper than she'd expected at first.

She sank in on her back, so that she could keep her face just high enough above the water to breathe. She fluttered her hands, adjusting her position with the easy unconscious movements of someone in her element. Sayeh had always loved the water, moving easier in it than she did on land, and this acted the same to the touch, except it was more dense. It eased the strain on her warped back.

"Station's mind will initiate linkup now," said Trryhlin from above her. "It's really generally quite harmless, if a little playful. So, was

And there it was, a cascade of bright colors entering her thoughts. It chattered at her, cascading color through her mind. And then it drew the two minds together.

It played and cascaded across the connection, bright delightful yellows and greens like dappled sunlight as it wove like a busy spider. Sayeh had forgotten her body where it floated gently in the crystal, forgotten Trryhlin standing quietly in the room beside her, forgotten that she was suspended painfully in phase. This was something else entirely.

And then a great rainbow of colors blossomed in her mind, station's mind preening in satisfaction. It chattered in color and symbols, and she got the gist of it. The connection is complete, a strong white line between two structures, one gold and white, the other outlined in dark blues. Open your eyes, a single stylized white eye, opening wide.

She opened her eyes to a flood of sensation. Contact was electric and sudden, the newfound connection seeking purchase in both of them, until it found its place anchored in the foundations of their minds. And then it was complete and Sayeh floated face-up against the living crystal, whose gentle, careful currents held her safely. For a time it seemed as if she were nearly weightless, almost insubstantial. Slowly, substance and weight returned. She rose from the pool, feeling oddly refreshed, every muscle relaxed but ready for any movement, balance perfect, mind cleared and calm.

Ehnorrai had already gotten out of the deep crystal pool that station's mind communicated through, and had stood looking at the tiny, slim floating figure of Sayeh Azhaani as she returned slowly from the shock of connection. Now she seemed like a Nexus, she had the presence of one, anyway. But how long the strength of the connection would last, as unusual as it was, was hard for anyone to say. Sayeh couldn't explain it, only station's mind could, and it had tried, but the concepts were too alien for Sayeh to interpret. And that was just part of only the mental half of what a full connection would be like. But for now, that was impossible.

Reaching out to another's mind is like pushing your own thoughts outward, as if there is a bridge between you and someone else. Communicating this way requires a direct, concentrated beam of thought. However, with a connection you would only have to extend your awareness outward slightly, until it brushed against the minds in some way connected to you. It's a concept you wouldn't understand until you've tried it and succeeded. And then there would be no way to convey it to someone else.

"Sayeh," Trryhlin said. "How did it go?"

"Better than I'd expected, for something so experimental."

He seemed almost visibly relieved. Maybe she was getting better at reading Praelor expressions, what there was of them, anyway. "Good, because they need you in the sky."

Ehnorrai looked at her. Their eyes met, solid blue against fathomless, star-spangled black.

"I do not know what being connected to my mind will do to you," he said quietly. "It is likely to be as much a burden for you as a blessing, as it is not the usual kind of connection you would have with me in a network. Kkhlyyr is my Nexus, and this is an odd connection. ... I think that the results will be ... quite unusual. I will not keep you any longer ..." He stood up again, forming some intricate angular sign that Sayeh didn't remember yet, and left them. Sayeh and Trryhlin made their way to her ship in silence.

"What was it he said to me?" she asked.

"It is ..." Trryhlin stopped and thought for a moment. "My translator informs me that it cannot be interpreted, and I can think of no suitable explanation. It is odd that Ehnorrai directed it to you ..."

"Can you at least explain part of it?" she asked.

"The sign of connection, of High Balance achieved, of completion," Trryhlin said. "Ehnorrai has been looking for something, missing something you might say ... and whatever it was, you showed it to him." Apparently there was no "it, without calling you it" word, not one that could be translated. "Humans are a very openly emotional race, but your emotions are chaotic ... I could not tell you what he meant by it even if I knew. If he wants to, he will tell you one day."

Sayeh went into her expediter. When she stepped into her apartment, everyone could tell she was different, deeper, more centered and assured. She brought an air of calm strength into the room with her.

"We're going back in," she said.

She seemed indestructible. Her mind, cleared and centered by the equalizing presence of Ehnorrai, seemed to move along precise lines and angles at speeds none of the others could manage, and it was all subconscious thought; all that came to her conscious mind were the results of it. This made sense, because Ehnorrai was all but designed to know, intimately, the relations between space and all the objects moving therein. It wasn't a computer or something inside of a drive that bent time, made gates, folded space, it was the ship's mind and Ehnorrai, working in tandem. Lent that ability, in space Sayeh was a force to be reckoned with. The Ontanka and the Frnalk certainly couldn't keep up with her intricate, subtle maneuvering. Even the CTN were having problems with her. _Azhaani_ became a word her enemies knew and feared, it was more than a name, it was reverted to its original meaning in human form.

But Sayeh's own troubles weren't over yet. Whatever governs fate had an even greater role in mind for her in the unfolding conflict than she could have imagined ...

It was a room similar to thousands of such rooms used throughout the ages of humanity's bloody evolution, but it had its specicfic oddities, for it had contained many an unusual and unwilling guest in High Guard's command base on Rolukksica. Its most recent occupant, weakened, malnourished, overstressed and severely wounded, had died in childbirth. None of her offspring had survived more than a few hours. The room had then been sterilized and put to another use, in some ways more unusual but equally as terrible as its previous function.

Its floor, walls and ceiling were metal-lined, making it like a low steel box. It had a single door, set three and a half feet above the floor. One entered the room via a single block of concrete set below the doorway, which sank into the floor as soon as you'd stepped off of it, entering or exiting. Yet there were several odd things about it, a sophisticated-looking ventilation system in its ceiling, odd-looking sensor panels shielded by an extremely durable, dense transparent material, and a small panel that slid back so things could be moved in and out via robotic arm. There was a grate in the floor, with a narrow, soft-bottomed space beneath it. In certain circumstances the grate would open, and the bottom would tilt slowly into a steeper and steeper slope so that anything that fell in would slide gently to whatever was at the bottom. And something did fall in occasionally, a collection of tiny living (or sometimes at this point dead) somethings, squeaking and chittering and clicking piteously.

They never lived very long, anyway.

The most telltale sign of the room's use were what looked like scorch marks marring its metal surfaces.

Right now it contained something other than its usual occupant. A little girl, barely a year and a half old, lay curled up on her side, her tear-stained face hidden by her thick, dark curls. Every now and then she twitched slightly, but otherwise you would have to look carefully to see the rise and fall of her chest that showed she was still breathing. Her backpack, which contained a Lore computer sewed into the lining by Maerlyn, lay nearby, her discarded shirt in tatters beneath her curled body. One had to look closely to realize the reddish-greenish stains on the cloth, stains that seemed to have melted it through in some places where it hadn't been cut off her body, were bloodstains. And then one had to wonder at the color, and the apparent effect ... Her back was wrapped in thick white bandages, but if she was in pain she made no sound, as was customary. Something buried in her mind strictly clamped down on any urge to cry, any need to show pain or emotion, any sound that she might make.

The door opened. The little girl looked up with huge, nearly-faceted, whiteless blue on dark, dark blue eyes. She watched silently as a human figure entered. Since it was encased in light armor, the only thing you could tell about it was that it was short, maybe five-three. It approached the little girl with a long, glittering needle in its hand. Desperately she tried to wriggle away, but something was obstructing her movement, the needle sank into her arm, and she lay still.

The figure quickly unwrapped the unusual child's bandages. The child's back was slick-smooth, slightly waxy-feeling, and splashed with bright, shining color, but even stranger than that, a pair of tiny, still-damp shimmering wings fluttered free, catching the light and shining with it.

The lightly-armored figure straightened. Now the light shone through the faceplate on to the pale countenance of a woman with terrible sharp, birdlike features, glittering dark eyes, and long black hair swept back from a widow's-peak and held out of her face by an intricate silver-and-hematite clip.

The child knew this face, or rather, a race memory deep within her knew this face. It was a hated, feared face, so very human-like yet so far from truly human.

Her people had named this woman Lunnai, evil incarnate.


End file.
